NRZ moves into Mozambique to improve wheat flow
THE National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has moved closer to the Port of Beira in Mozambique to improve movement of wheat imports into the country.
Previously the giant parastatal has been taking delivery of wheat wagons from its interchange point at Machipanda on the ZimbabweMozambique border. However, due to challenges on the Mozambique side with the movement of rail traffic into Zimbabwe, the NRZ has made a decision to go beyond its interchange point of Machipanda to Nyamatanda, closer to the Port of Beira, to collect wheat traffic destined for the country.
“NRZ is now collecting wheat from Nyamatanda, 40 kilometres from Beira. So far NRZ has sent a couple of tandems (trains) to Nyamatanda between Sunday and Tuesday to collect 45 wagons of wheat,” public relations manager Mr Nyasha Maravanyika said yesterday.
“The move by the NRZ to collect wheat closer to the port is meant to assist in the fast transportation of wheat into the country.”
Normally, NRZ gets its rail traffic from Beira at Mutare where it is delivered by the Mozambican rail authorities. However, of late, Mr Maravanyika said, NRZ has been taking delivery of cargo at Machipanda border post before the latest decision to extend deeper into Mozambican territory.
NRZ is an important player in the transportation of various imported goods, among them wheat. Recently, grain millers had expressed concern over delays in transportation of imported wheat, a situation blamed for prevailing bread shortages in the market. Because of wheat shortages, Mr Maravanyika said, NRZ has seen it fit to play its part to ameliorate the shortages by going beyond its usual territory of operations.
“As an economic enabler, the NRZ is fully committed to playing its role by ensuring extensive improvement in the transportation and delivery of all goods, including wheat, destined for the country,” he said.
Meanwhile, the NRZ’s Inter-Rail-Tech brand scooped a bronze medal at the just ended MineEntra exhibition in Bulawayo. The firm exhibited under its Inter-Rail-Tech brand and was adjudged to be the third best exhibit in the service providers’ category of the Mine- Entra 2018 awards. InterRail-Tech was exhibiting at Mine-Entra for the second time having made its debut in 2017 and winning a bronze medal is a significant achievement for this new exciting NRZ brand.
Inter-Rail-Tech consists of NRZ’s mechanical, signals, electrical and bridgeyard sections whose operations have been opened up to take outside jobs to provide a one stop solution to the mining and engineering industries. Services offered by Inter-Rail-Tech include designing, fabrication, manufacturing, reconditioning, repairs, rewinding, servicing and consultancy as well as boiler and wire rope maintenance inspections.
“Inter-Rail-Tech has technical staff comprising engineers, technicians and artisans. It was formed after the NRZ had realised there is a huge market for Inter-Rail-Tech services,” said Mr Maravanyika.
Inter-Rail-Tech boasts a wide range of industrial machinery and equipment, CNC-Computerized lathe machine, balancing machine for balancing rotors, turbines and armatures and pressing machines, which can press up to 150 tons, a foundry, jack hammers for civil works, vacuum pressure impregnation plant, mobile cranes and bulldozer.