Govt eyes 51pc rise in transport budget

Dodoma. The government plans to raise the budget for the transport sector by 51 per cent in the next financial year as it seeks to beef up funding for vital economic infrastructure to support the country’s industrialisation drive.

During the 2018/19 budget, Parliament approved a total of Sh4.27 trillion for the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications.

Sh1.87 trillion was set aside for the works sector, while the transport sector received Sh2.39 trillion, leaving the communications docket with Sh18.857 billion.

Speaking during the transport workers’ council meeting here yesterday, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications, Dr Leonard Chamuriho, said the budget for the sector will rise to Sh3.62 trillion in the next financial year.

Works, Transport and Communications minister Isack Kamwelwe graced the event.

The meeting was convened to deliberate on the progress in implementation of the sector’s Sh2.39 trillion budget for the current financial year and next year’s estimates which are to be presented to a parliamentary committee today.

Where does the money go?

In line with President John Magufuli’s desire to build the right infrastructure to support Tanzania’s industrialisation endeavours, Dr Chamuriho said the lion’s share of the money will go towards implementation of the ongoing mega projects.

“We have the standard gauge railway line whereby we want to complete the 300km stretch of the Dar es Salaam-Morogoro section of the SGR,” he said.

Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) executive director Masanja Kadogosa said in Dar es Salaam last week that construction of the SGR between Dar es Salaam and Morogoro was 45.8 per cent complete, while the one between Morogoro and Makutopora in Dodoma Region was done by seven per cent.

“We expect to continue with the Morogoro-Makutupora stretch in the coming financial year and complete it in the 2020/2021 financial year,” Dr Chamuriho said.

Strengthening of the state-owned Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) also remains high on the government’s agenda for the coming financial year, mainly targeting completion of the existing work.

“In the same vein, we will also implement plans to build new ships to ply lakes Victoria and Tanganyika. Rehabilitation of some of the ships is also work in progress. We had planned to undertake the tasks in two years and complete them during the coming year.”

Dr Chamuriho added that during the current financial year the government bought four radars for commercial aircraft which will be installed at Dar es Salaam’s Julius Nyerere International Airport and Mwanza, Kilimanjaro and Songwe airports.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Kamwelwe listed a number of projects that have been conducted during the 2018/19 financial year, saying the government completed the rehabilitation of berth number one as part of a wider project to overhaul berths one to seven at Dar es Salaam Port.

Similarly, rehabilitation of berth number two at Tanga Port is currently at done by 86 per cent and work should be completed by June.

“We have also rehabilitated 199 kilometres out of the 439 kilometres of the Tanga-Arusha railway line,” he said, noting that from next month Tanzanians will be able to travel by rail to Moshi in Kilimanjaro Region.