New SI boost to ZRL haulage
By MAILESI BANDA ABOUT 750,000 tonnes of cargo was moved by Zambia Railways Limited in 2017, chief executive officer, Christopher Musonda has announced.
Mr Musonda said the rail way company had a projection of 1.3 million tonnes this year adding that with the newly signed statutory instrument the figures of the tonnage would increase to 1.6 million.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr Musonda said the anticipated growth would be triggered by the increase in the price of copper.
“With the increase in the price of copper we expect more growth from the rail sector because of the imports, exports and transit traffic to Congo,” he said.
He explained that while the government-owned company rail transport company does not have idle capacity to handle the extra cargo they will set up mechanisms to benefit from the growth.
“We do not have idle capacity but we need to build up capacity based on the anticipated growth and actions towards implementing this growth are under way,” he said.
He explained that the company supports the SI adding that it would give the customers more tonnage especially if they were efficient and that this would increase their tonnage and turn over this year.
He noted that the SI would give the state-owned rail company an opportunity to stand to the challenge the additional haulage will bring.
He explained that the Zambia Railways Limited was in talks with neighboring rail transport companies to discuss how they would handle the additional cargo which would be triggered by the SI.