Deputy Minister for Transport and Communications eng Atashasta Nditiye issued the directives yesterday during his visit at the Morogoro TRC workshop and saw ongoing repair work of locomotives.
He also visited assembly workshop of seven new locomotives being performed by SMH Rail from Malaysia in collaboration of Tanzanian engineers.
During his visit the minister discovered that TRC normally takes a long time to make purchases of spare parts and oil for completion of repair work of locomotives
“You have to stop that habit. If there are challenges of payments for spare parts, the TRC management must work on that,” he said.
He said there was no reason for taking over three months to obtain locomotive spare parts after which engineers take two month to repair one locomotive.
“We are thankful at this workshop we have experts who are ready to work hard to ensure our trains run smoothly and are also ready to train the youth so that they can later take over the job,” he said.
On his part, the TRC Morogoro workshop manager Eng. Edgar Bakuza admitted over the existence of challenges facing the procurement of spare parts for locomotives at the workshop, saying they were working hard in collaboration of the TRC management and other stakeholders to solve the challenges and” we believe soon the issue will be history,” he explained.
He said they are continuing renovating seven shunting locomotives at the railways yards and added that after the arrival of vital spare parts that are on their way, the work will be completed within the timeframe.
He said the seven shunting locomotives will relieve ordinary locomotives from shunting to be used for normal hauling of trains to upcountry.
TRC director for administration and human resources Halima Lumuli also admitted the existence of challenges facing procurement of spare parts but promised they will work hard to ensure TRC runs smoothly.
She also added that TRC will ensure workers’ welfare is improved including training of mechanics at the workshop for better TRC operations.
