23 East African Railways and Harbours Administration
NOT FOR PUBLICATION INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS Washing%on, D.C. ast Africa High Commission November 29, 195 (2) East African Railways and Harbours Administration Mr. Walter S. Rogers Institute of Current World Affairs 22 Fifth Avenue New York 6, New York Dear Mr. Rogers The public Railways and Inland Marine Service of ast Africa, a] oerated by the Railways and Harbours Administration, are by far the rlncipal means of transport of the area. In 1992 they performed some I,98,60,O ton miles of freight haulage and some 6,,898 passenger orneys over ,O99 route miles of metre gauge railway and other routes. The present role of the railway is varie. At the outlying pointB it is rovidlng access to new agrlc,tural areas and to mineral operations. Along established lines it continues to bring in the capital equipment for development and the import goods in demand by the uropean, Asian and African population; but it also is serving increasingly as an economic integrator, allowing regional agricultural specialization so that each smal bloc of territory ned not remain fully self sufficient in food grains. The comparatively cheap*haulage to the coast of larger quantities of export produce, sisal, cotton, coffee, sod-ash, is a necessary facility for the expanding economy of .East Africa. The railway also gives mobility to labor in ast Africa, facilitating the migrations necessary for agricultural purposes and for industries denendent upon large numbers of African personnel. By providing longer heavier haulge services, the railways complement their own and other motor transport service; the natural difficulties of road building and maintanance being formidable in East Africa, it is usually accepted that truck haulage routes should be ancilary to the railway.
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