Draft law which aims at allowing private investors to engage in railway transportation service has been prepared. If passed by the law maker, the draft bill, dubbed Railway Transportation Administration, allows investors to use the national railway infrastructure. In other words, private companies are now allowed to give services on the already built railway infrastructures. This is in the midst of Ethiopia Railway Corporation’s (ERC) debt mounting at a staggering level, which reached 120 billion Birr.

The draft proclamation was presented to the lower house, House of Peoples’ Representatives (HPR) on Thursday, June 22, 2017. According to the draft document, private companies that pass through the licensing process will be allowed to participate in the railway transportation services sector.

Railway transport service is defined by the draft bill as an activity of transporting passengers or goods from one place to other using trains along a railway infrastructure. It also defines the phrase “Railway Undertaking” as Railway undertaking means a government or a private institution which holds a relevant license and whose main function is to provide railway transport service to the public.

Among other things the draft proclamation stipulates “No railway undertaker shall give railway transport service through payment unless it has an updated tariff, approved by the ministry which is in charge of specifying the payment and the conditions on which it gives the service to customers by transporting passengers and goods”.

Source: The Reporter