African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 982 Dar es Salaam City Circle

"By 1905, in terms of transportation, the national railway mileage should reach kilometers. In terms of urban rail transportation, two new subways and intercity railways should be built in Dar es Salaam, connecting the First Town City with Rhine City and Soga City, expanding the Rhine City subway network, and cement and asphalt roads exceeding million kilometers. Twelve new canals will be built to connect the water transport network between Mozambique and the central region."

After the capital was moved, the political status of the original First Town City declined, which means that the First Town City lost its original political industry. Therefore, if the First Town City is not abandoned, it can only merge with Dar es Salaam to continue to develop. Because of the capital relocation, the resources of the First Town City itself are no longer able to support its continued development.

On the enlarged map of the Coast Province (formerly Central Province), Stuart circled Dar es Salaam, Bagamoyo, First Town and Soga in red.

"Please look at these four cities in the east on the map. I think everyone is familiar with them. After all, most of us used to work in the First Town."

"The problem now is that the development of the first town city in the past relied on the highest priority political resources, including hospitals, schools, transportation, industries, etc., all centered around political services."

"But with the completion of the capital relocation, the original urban ecology of the First Town could no longer be maintained. In addition, most of the medical, educational, and industrial resources were split and reorganized in Rhine City. Even the population of the First Town was reduced to less than 50,000 people."

Ernst also added at this time: "Although the First Town has lost its original status after the capital was moved, it is still the political center of the Coastal Province and one of the transportation hubs. The urban construction is also quite complete. Therefore, the arrangement for the First Town is to make full use of its advantages and ensure its subsequent development. At present, my idea is to merge the First Town into the Dar es Salaam Economic Zone, which will be conducive to the combination of strong forces."

Although the capital of East Africa has changed, the government of the former Central Province, now the Coastal Province, is still in the First Town City. During its time as the capital, the First Town City has accumulated a large amount of medical, educational and administrative resources. Although most of them were transferred to Rhine City with the relocation of the capital, the remaining resources are also considerable in scale and quality.

Just like the administrative division changes of the Far East Empire in the previous life, the educational resources of some abolished administrative regions would still remain in the local area, and the situation is similar in the First Town City.

As the saying goes, a lean camel is bigger than a horse. This is the case with the First Town. Although its economic scale is far smaller than that of Dar es Salaam, in terms of public resources such as administration, education, and medical care, the First Town is even more developed than Dar es Salaam.

Siwei Te went on to say: "The First Town can serve as a satellite city of Dar es Salaam, and cooperate with Soga to form the technological, political and cultural center of the Eastern Coast Province, and build an economic development cluster of Greater Dar es Salaam, thereby surpassing the megacities in Europe and the United States."

"Dar es Salaam, Bagamoyo, First Town and Soga are developing together. The urban population in the region exceeds one million. The economy, culture, education, medical care and transportation are also in the first echelon of the country. If we want to achieve the coordinated development of the four cities, the core issue is to solve the problem of traffic avoidance."

"At present, the First Town and Soga, Dar es Salaam are directly connected by the central railway, Bagamoyo and Dar es Salaam are connected by the eastern coastal railway, and the First Town and Bagamoyo are connected by a canal, forming a triangular transportation network. There are also roads connecting the four cities, and the inherent advantages in the field of transportation are obvious."

“It’s just that in the past, this transportation network was centered around the first town, but now the first town is clearly unable to assume the task of guiding the economic development of the region.”

"At the same time, in order to unleash the economic vitality of Dar es Salaam, build a new economic bridgehead in the Indian Ocean, promote the division of labor among eastern cities, and upgrade our industry and industry, cluster development is an inevitable option."

"On this basis, the plan to further improve local transportation and achieve coordinated development of the four cities will be put on the agenda." Although the transportation in the four cities of Dar es Salaam was well developed in the past, the transportation network that had been built mainly served the whole country. After all, Dar es Salaam is one of the main ports in eastern East Africa. In the early days of East Africa, when the territory was limited to the East African region, it was the only important seaport. At that time, Mombasa had not yet developed.

Correspondingly, there is still greater room for improvement in the coordinated development among cities in the Maritime Province. In the past, due to limitations of the times, local transportation focused on serving the entire country. Now the East African government aims to make its transportation convenient for regional economic services.

Obviously, it is impossible for East Africa to cancel the original functions of the existing local transportation. It can only re-plan and build a new transportation network on this basis to serve the local economic and industrial integration, and the key to this is the construction of intercity railways and highways.

Siwei Te went on to say: “That is to build an intercity railway loop around Dar es Salaam, connecting Dar es Salaam, Soga, the first town and Bagamoyo, so as to achieve smooth flow of people, goods and information.”

"At the same time, we will build intercity expressways, that is, direct highways between the four cities, to facilitate future connections between cars and other road traffic. This will not only ease the pressure on the original transportation network, but also further enhance the ability of the four cities to develop in a coordinated manner."

“At the same time, the new Dar es Salaam city circle will cover the education and scientific research resources of the original First Town City and Soga City, promote the development of emerging industries, integrate the shipbuilding industry of Bagamoyo City and Dar es Salaam City, and provide a large amount of developable land and more industrial population, so as to promote more efficient economic development of the Coastal Province.”

In fact, the education and scientific research resources in Dar es Salaam and Bagamoyo are not bad. If the First Town City and Soga City are integrated, their scientific research capabilities and potential will directly surpass Mbeya, the current scientific research center in East Africa.

After all, the education and scientific research resources of these four cities are among the best in East Africa.

Educational and scientific research resources are only one of them, and industrial integration is the big deal. Dar es Salaam and Mombasa are all-round players among East African cities, and they have no shortcomings in many industrial fields. If they merge with Bagamoyo, their industrial scale will be further enhanced.

Bagamoyo is not a small city among the current cities in East Africa, but a relatively developed medium-sized city. It is also the current shipbuilding center of East Africa, with a population of over 300,000. Therefore, the combined population of Dar es Salaam and Bagamoyo alone has exceeded one million, and with the First Town City and Soga City, the population is over one million.

In terms of distance, the cities are densely distributed, with the distance between them not exceeding 60 kilometers. If they were first-tier cities in the Far East Empire in later generations, they would be able to be integrated into the same city.

Of course, in the 19th century, East Africa obviously could not do this. After all, there was no way to achieve seamless transportation, so the concept of urban circle is more suitable for four cities such as Dar es Salaam.

The only shortcoming of the local area is probably the insufficient mineral resources, and it cannot achieve the economic depth into the interior like Shanghai, the Far Eastern Empire. After all, the topographical features of East Africa determine that in the future there will be multiple centers along the coast of East Africa, rather than Dar es Salaam being the only one dominating.

After all, in the past, when the East African coast only consisted of the coasts of Tanzania and Kenya, the city of Dar es Salaam could not outshine the city of Mombasa.

(End of this chapter)