In Summary
Dodoma. The government has maintained that
business between Kigali and Dar es Salaam has been running smoothly and
that there were no fears of the former ditching Dar port.
The deputy minister for Transport, Dr Charles Tizeba, said at a press conference in the Capital of Tanzania, Dodoma, yesterday.
He said a Tanzanian team comprising officials from
his ministry, Finance ministry, Works docket and Prime Minister’s
Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments) visited Rwanda
for an EAC ministerial meeting on transportation and infrastructure
development.
“Rwanda minister responsible for transportation,
Mr Silas Lwakabamba assured our delegation that Rwanda was still using
Dar port and at the time when we were talking some 400 containers
destined for Rwanda were at the Dar port waiting for clearance,” he
said.
Dr Tizeba said Rwanda businessmen assured them
that they will continue to use Dar es Salaam port and advised the
government on what to do in order to improve services.
He said one of the things which Rwanda businessmen
lamented about was many weigh bridges and in order to resolve the issue
the government has decided to introduce drive through weighing
machines.
He said the government has also agreed to reduce
the number of weigh bridges along the central corridor to only three for
transit cargo vehicles.
“We will now have weigh bridges at Vigwaza in
Coast Region, Manyoni in Singida and Nyakahura just before the border
with Rwanda,” he said noting that only vehicles which will be identified
to have more than allowed weight will be stopped at drive through weigh
bridges.
The deputy minister noted also that the Rwandese businessmen were not happy with high road user fees which Tanzania apply.
But, he said the fees were calculated basing on
the cost of building and maintaining the roads as well as distance which
the lorries travel.
On complaints about theft of car parts at Dar es
Salaam port, Dr Tizeba said that after starting inspecting imported
vehicles in ships before they were offloaded it was established that
most of the theft occurred in other ports before the ships docked at Dar
port.
Dr Tizeba also exonerated Dar port from theft of
tantalite from Rwanda on grounds that it was established that the cargo
was missing before it was handed over to the port.
Source: The citizen
Source: The citizen
