Senkolo Inland Port commissioned
THE Zambia Railways Limited has officially launched and commissioned the operationalisation of the Senkobo Inland Port in Livingstone for haulage of coal from Hwange to the Copperbelt and Lusaka.
This means that the coal that used to be hauled by trucks from the loading bay in Hwange to Lusaka and Ndola will now be moved by rail. Speaking during the launch, commissioning and flagging off of the first load on Thursday afternoon, ZRL board chairperson, Dr ED Wala Chabala noted that the event was in line with the new dawn government’s aspirations.
The most important one is the environmental dimension. When we talk about moving 8,000 tones of coal from here into Ndola and Lusaka, we are saying there could have been 250 trucks on the road carrying that coal contributing to the wear and tear of the road but instead, the coal is moving on the train,” Dr Chabala noted.
“There is also the emissions issue; road freight contributes a lot more of emissions than what the rail does. The other aspect we need to be happy with is the turnaround tones because before this, we used to have coal moving once a month from Hwange to Lusaka and Ndola but now we do it three times per month,” he announced.
The board chairperson lamented that what makes Zambia Railways Limited not to bring more customers on board was because the company was not seen to be more efficient but a facility like Senkobo inland port demonstrates how quick the turn around is able to do.
Dr Chabala said with such an improvement, certainly other clients will also come on board.
Zambia Railways,
Chief Executive Officer Christopher Musonda asked for more support from the board to the company for it to effectively operate and run the Senkobo inland Port.
And Zambia Furnace, ZRL’s partner and client called for more collaboration between the two companies.
Director, Gareth Evans said Zambia Furnace has been working and partnering with ZRL for a long time now and working together has been phenomenal.
Meanwhile, Zambia Railways Limited and Allied Workers Union president Nathan Zulu said the commissioning and flagging off of the operationalization of the Senkobo has made proud the workforce in the Southern Region.
At the same event, Southern Regional Manager George Chilufya disclosed that the launch of the inland port will result in the maximum utilisation of the wagons.