- SMH Rail, Malaysia’s leading rolling stock manufacturing and maintenance company, plans to invest between $40 million and $100 million in Tanzania to produce locomotives and wagons.
- MH Rail is Malaysia’s largest privately-owned prime rolling stock manufacturer and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) service provider – delivering rail engineering solutions to more than 20 countries globally.
SMH Rail, Malaysia’s leading rolling stock manufacturing and maintenance company, plans to invest between $40 million and $100 million in Tanzania to produce locomotives and wagons. MH Rail is Malaysia’s largest privately-owned prime rolling stock manufacturer and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) service provider – delivering rail engineering solutions to more than 20 countries globally
SMH Rail has announced that it has procured 50 acres of land at Kwala in Kibaha, Coast Region for the building of a rolling stock manufacturing plant to manufacture locomotives, wagons and a diesel-electric multiple unit.
The announcement came during a recent media interview with the company representative on the occasion of handing over ceremony of three modern locomotives (H10 series) to the Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC) built by SMH Rail for the metre gauge railway (MGR) of Tanzania. The locomotives handed over to TRC were part of the $300 million of the World Bank’s Tanzania – Intermodal and Rail Development Project (TIRP) to improve the infrastructure on the Dar es Salaam-Isaka rail segment.
Mr Mansour the company representative said that the company plans to start the construction of the factory soon. The construction is expected to be completed within six months to one year. According to him, the manufacturing plant will be would be environmentally friendly–with state-of-the-art technology and the world’s best practices in rolling stock manufacturing. It is hoped that setting up the manufacturing facility will enable SMH Rail to maximise the usage of local content and thus reduce the outflow of currency for the government.
This also would provide a platform for local vendors to contribute local products to be integrated in the manufacturing activities. Speaking on the occasion, Works and Transport minister Makame Mbarawa said the construction of the manufacturing plant would reduce costs that the government was incurring to import locomotives and wagons.
