Transport in Tanzania is mainly by road, supplemented by rail. Tanzania's road network, is of limited quality and not many roads are tarmacked. Dirt roads become impassable during the rainy season and can remain impassable for days, or, more often, weeks. The only reliable surface connection from the east of the country towards Lake Tanganyika-is by rail, during rainy season. Air transport is unaffordable for the vast majority of people. There are few commercial airports, but a large number of basic landing strips for small aircraft do exist.
In 2008 Tanzania had 3,689 km (2,292 mi) of rail, ranking it 46th in the world by extent of railway system. Tanzania's system includes 2,720 km (1,690 mi) of 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) gauge, or narrow gauge, and 969 km (602 mi) of 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge track.
Tanzania is comparatively well-served by railways. Maintenance is a problem but generally the country has been able to rely on its railways rather than highways for transport between east and west. The connections between Lake Victoria and the eastern coast are especially vital. For this reason highway development has been neglected in the past. Only the south-east of the country does not have access to the railway network. Bukoba in the north west is served by a train ferry link to the railhead at Mwanza.
Proposals have been made for a new railway to link Mtwara to iron ore deposits in the west, possibly connecting to Mbeya.
The central line between Kigoma and Dar es Salaam carries international freight and passengers in transit from Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda to the Indian Ocean, and the branch from Tabora to Mwanza carries freight and passengers between Uganda and the Indian Ocean.
Isaka Dry Port, a small town and station on the Mwanza Line at its intersection with the paved highway to Kigali. It has been developed into a so-called 'dry port' for trans-shipping Burundian and Rwandan road freight onto freight trains for the seaport of Dar es Salaam. There are proposals to build a railway from Isaka to Rwanda/Burundi.[6]
The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), formerly also called TanZam Railway. operates 1,860 km (1,156 mi) of 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow gauge track (to match Zambian/Southern African networks) between Dar es Salaam and Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia (of which 969 km/602 mi is in Tanzania and 891 km/554 mi is in Zambia); is not a part of Tanzania Railways Corporation. Because of the difference in gauge, this system doesn't connect to the Tanzanian Railway Network.[9] However, a container trans-shipment yard to transfer freight containers between TAZARA and Tanzania Railways Corporation trains has been built at Kidatu near Morogoro. This allows containers to be shipped from as far as Uganda and Kenya via the Lake Victoria train ferries and the Kidatu yard to the Southern African rail network via Zambia without leaving the rail system.
As of 2003 Tanzania had 78,891 km (49,021 mi) of roads, of which only 6,808 km (4,230 mi) were paved. Tanzania's roadway system ranks in 60th in the world by total length of roads.
Tanzania's principal paved highways are confined to the north-eastern, central-eastern, and south-western regions of the country:
There are no paved links from the capital to the south-eastern, western, central and northern regions. Most of the roads between these areas are dirt tracks, with a few improved gravel sections. Within each area there are paved roads isolated from the rest of the paved network. The situation is:
The Cairo-Cape Town Highway (highway 4 in the Trans-African Highway network) runs through Tanzania from Namanga on the Kenyan border in the north and the Tanzanian/Mozambican border town of Tunduma in the south-west, via Arusha, Dodoma, Iringa and Mbeya, passing through some of the best scenery in Africa. The section between Tarangire National Park and Iringa is not paved and can be very difficult after rain especially north of Kondoa Irangi. A longer eastern route via Moshi and Morogoro is paved. But these have often been poorly maintained in the past so are full of potholes. In south-west Tanzania the Trans-African Highway follows the Tanzam Highway linking Zambia to the port of Dar es Salaam.
Tanzania has an abundance of coastal and lake waterways around its borders. In the central areas of the country there are no lakes or rivers that are usable for transportation.
Tanzania has a strong maritime tradition going back centuries. Zanzibar was once the chief port on the East African, Indian Ocean coast. Its hinterland reached into Central Africa as far as the middle Congo River. Swahili traders used dhows to conduct trade though many ports along the coast. This tradition continues today with motorised craft. The government of Tanzania has announced plans to develop a new port at Mbegani, near Bagamoyo; it would offer a deepwater harbour with a two-berth container terminal.[12]
Indian Ocean ports:
For about 80 years the famous Lake Victoria ferries have carried rail wagons and vehicles from Uganda to Tanzania. The ferries are jointly run by the railway companies of Tanzania and Uganda and form the chief means of transport between Tanzania and Uganda. As well as between northern Tanzania and south-western Kenya. Other ferry services link to the Tanzanian islands and smaller Tanzanian ports.
Lake Victoria ports in Tanzania:
Once a rival to Lake Victoria as a waterway, the Lake Tanganyika ferries are no longer as busy and train ferries no longer operate. Trade has suffered due to wars in the DR Congo. Small ferries link communities along the Tanzanian shore (some with no road access), and commercial traffic runs between Kigoma and Bujumbura, Burundi and Mpulungu, Zambia, including the MV Liemba.
Lake Tanganyika ports in Tanzania:
Tanzanian communities along the north-east shore (some without road access) are linked by ferry, and Malawian steamer and boat services have run the length of the lake for about 120 years.
Tanzanian towns with ferry wharves on Lake Malawi:
As of 2008, Tanzania's merchant fleet consisted of 9 Tanzanian-flagged vessels and 1 registered in Honduras. The small number of ships may be attributed to Tanzania's few exports, the relative insufficiency of its coast guard and naval forces, and Tanzania's single major port facility in Dar es Salaam. The nine domestically-flagged ships are one solely cargo ship, 4 passenger/cargo ships, and 4 oil tankers.
As of 2008, Tanzania could claim 253 km (157 mi) of gas pipeline, 888 km (552 mi) of oil pipeline, and an 8 km (5.0 mi) pipeline for refined petroleum products. The privately owned Tazama Pipeline accounts for a large portion of the country's crude oil transportation capability. It currently handles 600,000 tons of crude oil per year, but was designed to handle 1.1 million tons.
Tanzania had a total of 125 airports as of 2009, ranking it 47th in the world by number of airports.
total:9
over 3,048 m (10,000 ft): 2
2,438 to 3,047 m (7,999 to 9,997 ft): 2
1,524 to 2,437 m (5,000 to 7,995 ft): 4
914 to 1,523 m (2,999 to 4,997 ft): 1
total: 116
1,524 to 2,437 m (5,000 to 7,995 ft): 19
914 to 1,523 m (2,999 to 4,997 ft): 63
under 914 m (2,999 ft): 34
Government ministries and agencies
This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2009 edition".
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||