Chapter 452 East African Railway Network
Fast forward to 1875. The new population policy in East Africa did cause some controversy among the people, but it was generally acceptable.
Because even if the government reduces spending in this area, the cost of childbirth in East Africa is still the lowest in the world, and East Africa cannot adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. So the birth subsidy still exists, but it only covers three children, and the people will have to rely on themselves in the future.
In 1875, the Dar es Salaam to Mbeya section of the Central Railway was basically completed, the Northern Railway was completed as a whole, the Little Rhine River reconstruction project was also 80% completed, and the Central Canal was completely completed.
The Little Rhine River reconstruction project is no simpler than building a canal. Its workload has exceeded that of the canal project. The Little Rhine River not only revolves around the Little Rhine, but also has to take into account river changes in the entire basin and the East African farmland irrigation system. At the same time, hydrological conditions must also be considered. The work is especially difficult during the flood season, and work is often delayed due to heavy rains and turbulent river water.
However, after the transformation, the middle and lower reaches of the Little Rhine finally took on the appearance of European rivers, changing its natural form of thousands of years.
The New Hamburg Port has also been completed. Currently, the construction of the two sections of the Central Railway South Line has started with the cities of New Hamburg and Mbeya, which has greatly accelerated the construction of the Central Railway.
"Most of the projects have been completed or are about to be completed, with the exception of the Central Railway, which is the last piece of the puzzle. However, with the completion of the Dar es Salaam to Mbeya section, steel from the coast can be transported to the front end by rail. There will be no problem in completing the Central Railway next year. In addition to the western section, the southern section will be able to completely open the line from Lusaka to Bulawayo this year."
There were many road construction workers among this immigration, which greatly accelerated the construction of the East African Railway. Moreover, with the increase of steel production capacity in the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone and the commissioning of various supporting factories, the construction cost of the East African Railway was greatly reduced.
"Ernst, as the workload decreases, many slaves have entered a rest period. What should we do now? Continue building the railway or engage in other projects?" Constantine asked.
"The railway can continue to be built, but the construction of the railway should be slowed down first, and we should use the railway to promote immigration to the inland areas first."
As later generations said, the East African Railway was a pure loss-making business. Although the interior of East Africa was not uninhabited for thousands of miles, it was still very sparsely populated.
So now that the railway is completed, the land along the railway can be developed. Now we need to divert part of the population in eastern East Africa to inland.
So Ernst said: "The land of the Kingdom of Malawi that we occupied before can now be developed on a large scale. With the help of the Central Railway, we can first mix the immigrants and some of the eastern residents and send them to the South Salzburg Province."
The territory of the Kingdom of Malawi is on the west bank of Lake Malawi. It was divided between East Africa and Mozambique a few years ago. Malawi was called Nyasaland by the British in its previous life. It is rich in crops such as tobacco, coffee, tea, cotton, and sugarcane. The annual rainfall is between 1,000 mm and 1,500 mm.
It also has a variety of mineral deposits including rare earths, titanium ore, bauxite, uranium ore, corundum, pyrite, limestone, coal, graphite, as well as gems, gold and diamonds.
East Africa occupied most of the land of the Kingdom of Malawi, mainly the Northern Region and Central Region of the former Republic of Malawi (Malawi has a total of three regions). The Northern Region is mainly mountainous, the Central Region is a plateau, and the Southern Region is mainly plateaus and lowlands.
The Central Plateau region is the focus of development in East Africa, and it should be connected with the Luangwa River Basin.
“In terms of railways, this year we are planning a southern railway starting from Mtwara Port and going directly to the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone to solve the transportation problems in New Württemberg Province.”
Transportation in New Württemberg can be divided into three categories: the first is sea transportation, namely the Port of Mtwara; the second is road transportation, which is the main form of transportation used by the former Lake Province and now New Württemberg to connect cities within the province; the third is river transportation, which mainly relies on the Ruvuma River.
The transportation in New Württemberg is very good, and the western part belongs to the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone (the rest belongs to the Southern Salzburg Province).
However, there is a huge flaw in the transportation in New Württemberg, that is, the seaport of Mtwara and the Ruvuma River are not connected. Mtwara is a separate bay port, which requires an additional road transshipment procedure for goods in New Württemberg.
“The southern railway should not overlap with the Ruvuma River. It should be further north to better radiate the inland areas. To do this, Mtwara is located a little too far south, so I plan to build a new port in the bay more than 160 kilometers northwest of Mtwara as the starting point of the southern railway.”
The bay that Ernst mentioned is the Kilwa Masoko Port in Tanzania in the past life. It is also an important seaport in Tanzania. Now it doesn’t even have a name, such as Kilwa Masoko. It might as well be renamed Soko Port!
"Let's call this place Soko for now. Soko Port is geographically located closer to the Central Province, right in the middle of the Rufiji River and the Ruvuma River. There is nothing inland. If a railway is developed, it will be of great benefit to the development of the New Württemberg Province."
The economic center of New Württemberg is in the south, first the Lower Coast and then the Sea-Lake Province, both of which developed close to the Rovuma River, so New Württemberg inherited this characteristic.
This makes the area between the Central Province and the New Württemberg Province extremely empty, without even a decent city. Agriculture has developed well, but inconvenient transportation is also a big problem, and the processing and export of agricultural products are very inconvenient.
If the southern railway passes through here, it can solve this problem well, and at the same time open up a transportation line from the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone directly to the ocean.
The Lake Malawi Industrial Zone is currently divided into two parts, one on the north shore, centered on the city of Mbeya, and the other on the east shore, centered on Songea.
Songea was formerly the capital of the East Lake Malawi Region of the East African colony. It is now the heavy industrial center of the New Württemberg Province, and the terminus of the Southern Railway is the city of Songea.
The cities in East Africa are actually the same concept as the prefecture-level cities in the East in the previous life. Unlike the cities in Europe, they belong to local administrative offices, so the scope of Songea City extends all the way to Lake Malawi, and the end point of the railway is also at Lake Malawi.
Ernst went on to say: “In addition to the Southern Railway, the Central Railway also has a supporting branch line project. A branch line will be branched out from Dodoma City, passing through Mbeya City on the coast of the Great Lakes Region, and finally directly to Bujumbura in Western Great Lakes Province. In this way, we will be able to form a relatively basic railway network in East Africa.”
Although it was called a branch line, Ernst actually still intended to build it according to the standards of the Central Railway Main Line.
(Schematic diagram)
If these two railways are built, they will add another 1,000 kilometers, and the total mileage of East African railways will reach more than 7,000 kilometers.
It can also be seen from the map that the East African Railway has achieved the linkage of Lake Malawi, Lake Solon (Tanganyika) and the Great Lakes (Victoria). With the help of these three natural lakes, East Africa's transportation directly opens up the Ren and Du meridians.
Building railways in East Africa is indeed more troublesome than in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as any railway is more than 500 kilometers long. However, this kind of happy trouble cannot be enjoyed by countries without a vast territory.
(End of this chapter)
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