China Signs $1.4 Billion Deal For Mao-Era African-Rail Revival

China signed a deal with Zambia and Tanzania for the revitalization of a railway connecting the central African copperbelt with an Indian Ocean port. 

The revamp of the line — which Mao Zedong’s China financed and helped build in the 1970s — will cost about $1.4 billion, Zambia’s transport ministry said in a statement announcing the signing on Monday.

The Tanzania Zambia Railway, or Tazara, runs for 1,860 kilometers (1,160 miles) and had fallen into disrepair, operating at a fraction of its original capacity. Its upgrade comes as Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo ramp up copper production, leading to severe congestion of border crossings in the region because almost all cargo travels by road.

The line will compete with another that the US and EU are backing and connects the same copper-rich region to an Atlantic port on Africa’s west coast, known as the Lobito corridor.