New transport investment roadmap mulled

Arusha. Transport stakeholders have called for a new and comprehensive transport sector investment programme that would deliver.

 The desired roadmap along with a motley of reforms, they said, will lead to massive upgrading of structures, thus contributing to economic growth.

The Transport Sector Investment Programme (TSIP), once touted as a window to revitalize the key sector, is deemed to be outdated and needs replacement.

“Another one (transport sector investment programme) has to be prepared”, said Abdul Awadh, a transport consultant.

For years, the government has been seeking the support of development partners to implement it.

Implementation of TSIP would additionally require speeded-up reforms for the railways, through concessions of operations to enhance performance efficiency.

Mr Awadh, an engineer, was speaking at the end of the recently held 16th Joint Transport Review Meeting which brought together all players from different sub-sectors.

He said the development of the sector has been hampered by drawbacks in the National Transport Policy that was formulated in 2003.

“The policy does not provide policy directions on certain issues and at the same time has no specific policy for the maritime sub-sector,” he explained.

Maritime is not touted as a crucial segment for the blue economy, now advanced in the policy frameworks for economic development.

It emerged during the consultative talks that the maritime and aviation sub-sectors were faced with a shortage of human resources despite the existence of several specialized colleges.

These include the National Institute of Transport (NIT), Dar es Salaam Maritime Institute (DMI), Bandari Institute and the Civil Aviation Training Centre (CATC).

Mr Awadh said the institutions in question should increase their enrolment to cater for the increasing demand of experts.

The meeting, held at the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC), also called for a review of the legal frameworks governing the sector.

These include, among others, the Civil Aviation Master Plan 2023, Tazara Act 1995 and others that have been prepared for different sub-sectors.

It was noted that the available master plans in the entire transport sector have not been duly disseminated to the relevant institutions, including those within the sector.

Due to inadequate funding for transport infrastructure development and maintenance, other sources of revenue to bridge the gap should be explored.

It was proposed that a new road safety agency should be created to oversee all matters about road safety such as mandatory vehicle inspection.

It emerged during the four-day review that currently road safety is handled by many institutions, making coordination difficult.

A proposal to establish an Urban Transport Authority was put on hold to await consultations with the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments - PORALG).

Closing the meeting, the deputy minister for Transport David Kihenzile said the government was committed to safe, reliable and cost-effective transport.

He added that the ministry would ensure that the transport sector contributed significantly to the economic growth.

Transport in Tanzania includes road, rail, air and maritime networks and lately the pipeline modes.

According to available statistics, the road network is 86,472 kilometres as both trunk and regional roads.

The rail network consists of 3,682 km of track. There are 28 airports with Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) being the largest and busiest.

Incidentally, the air transport sub-sector (aviation industry) in Tanzania has been steadily growing, with an average growth rate of nine percent annually.

This is greater than the average four percent growth rate of the global aviation industry.