Mtwara Development Corridor

The Mtwara Development Project is a major infrastructure development project involving southern Tanzania, Northern Mozambique, Eastern Malawi and Eastern Zambia. The goal of this project is to provide road, rail and waterway access from the surrounding region to the Port of Mtwara. The region and the corridor has been neglected by the respective governments for over 40 years and the recent discovery of oil, gas and various minerals has kick started the development of the project. A road and rail link is to be built from the port of Mtwara to Mbamba bay on Lake Nyasa to link Malawi to the corridor and further road links into Mozambique will facilitate access to northern Mozambique.

The talks of the project began during the early 2000s where leaders of the 4 SADC community members met to create a shorter/alternative path for cargo into the region from the Dar es salaam port. The last time the region saw a major infrastructure investment was during the colonial times. The Mtwara port and a minor railway link was developed during the British colonial times as part of the failed Tanganyika groundnut scheme. Post colonial times the south of Tanzania had seen very little development and was often neglected in infrastructure projects as the region brought very little revenue to the coffers. Similar fate was seen by Northern Mozambique due to the proximity from the capital in the south Maputo and the Mozambique civil war, the region saw very little development.

In late 2004 the leaders of the 4 participating countries; Benjamin Mkapa (Tanzania), Joaquim Chissano (Mozambique), Bingu wa Mutharika (Malawi) and Levy Mwanawasa (Zambia) managed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to make the Mtwara Development Corridor a reality. The aim of the corridor was to create competitive transport links for the region to help boost the informal and formal industry. The project was to help regional integration to facilitate growth in agriculture, fisheries, tourism and the minning sector. The development project involved building and rehabilitating over 800 km of roads and involved the construction of Unity Bridge. Furthermore the ports of Mtwara and Mbamba Bay were to be upgraded to handle high volumes of cargo.

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