At least one million passengers have travelled aboard the standard gauge railway (SGR) electric trains between Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, and Dodoma, in Tanzania, since the service's launch four months ago, Xinhua reports.

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Fredy Mwanjala, the head of the communications unit for the Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC), said Wednesday that the figure was twice the total of passengers using the old meter gauge railway (MGR) between the three destinations in a year.

Mwanjala was briefing members of a parliamentary standing committee on public investments.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan on August 1officially launched the commercial operations of the country's SGR electric train service from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma. Commercial trial operations of the SGR electric train service started in July.

TRC director-general Masanja Kadogosa said the entire SGR project will cover 1,596 kilometres from Dar es Salaam to the Mwanza Region. The modern rail link will cut travel time significantly and boost economic development in Tanzania and across the region.

In December, the TRC is expected to receive 264 cargo wagons, 200 for containers and 64 for loose cargo, made by China's CRRC Qiqihar Rolling Stock Co., Ltd.

The 264 cargo wagons are part of 1,430 wagons to be made by the CRRC for the TRC, according to a recent TRC statement.