What you need to know:
- During the visit, the minister had the opportunity to travel by SGR train from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro, inspect the railway line from Morogoro to Dodoma, and visit the Kilosa and Dodoma station buildings.
SPEED train services on the standard gauge railway (SGR) from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma set to commence 25th this month will help medical staff and patients reach desired destinations rapidly.
Prof Tumaini Nagu, the government chief medical officer, said in an interview at the weekend that when rapid response is needed, medical staff will be dispatched and arrive in the shortest delays even with emergencies and at reasonable cost compared to or speedy travel by road with intent to arrive at the scene on-time.
Speed trains will also reduce the cost patients incur when referred from regional referral hospitals to major zonal hospitals, she stated, citing the most visible example as despatching medical teams from the Benjamin Mkapa Hospital in Dodoma to Morogoro or elsewhere, with more such transits expected as the speed train services reach lakeside terminals.
“We’ve received the SGR services with two hands believing that it will help our medical teams and patients travel rapidly from one point to the other and patients be served on-time,” she said.
Scheduled SGR services have been installed with the required safety mechanisms and will therefore be insulated from avoidable accidents that are a treatment burden to the public coffers and families, she further noted.
Improved connectivity will facilitate easier movement of people and cargo from one end to the other, reducing transportation costs, stimulating markets and the wider economy, experts assert.
Machibya Shiwa, the Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) acting chief executive officer, noted that requirements needed for scheduled trips to begin have been completed.
High speed rail accessibility also increases individual income, per capita household income and improving the probability of purchasing medical insurance, enabling assured treatment without hassles when the need arises, he said.
Social analysis of high speed rail shows that it reduces the health gap across gender and space, for urban and rural areas, he pointed out.
Prof Makame Mbarawa, rhe Transport minister, said shortly after inspecting final stage works on the the Dar es Salaam-Dodoma SGR infrastructure last week, maintained that high speed train services to Dodoma and back to Dar e Salaam start July 25
“Having inspected bridges and crossings along with the train itself, with the work progressing well, on July 25 we expect to begin services,” he added.