Rail firm says prospects bright

ZAMBIA Railways Limited anticipates to transport about 750 to 850 thousand metric tonnes of cargo by the end of 2017, chief executive officer Christopher Musonda has announced.

Mr. Musonda said the cargo transported by the company would have increased by 30 percent if the statutory instrument compelling transporters to ferry a certain amount of cargo onto the rail transport sector had been signed.

Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr. Musonda however said the process leading to the signing of the SI had reached an advanced stage.

“We had anticipated the SI to have been signed by September this year and it was going to bring about 30 percent increase in tonnage but as we await the signing we are working towards increasing our capacity to move the extra cargo,” he said.

He also said they were in talks with a South African based company Transnet in order to prepare for the signing of the SI and to try and get the capacity required to reach the anticipated growth in the rail transport sector.

He said ZRL was in locomotive and wagon leasing discussions with Transnet.

“We had a Zambian team that went to South Africa and inspected the equipment which we will get from there and last week a group from the commercial department came through for a meeting with our commercial team,” Mr. Musonda said.

He also said they were expecting engineers that will do surveys on the line before the equipment is delivered to ensure that they do not face challenges with the new locomotives and wagons once delivered.

Mr. Musonda explained that the state owned rail transportation company would be ready for the extra cargo by the time the Statutory Instrument is signed.

Government is expected to sign a statutory instrument that will compel transporters to ferry certain amount of cargo by rail to cushion damage on roads.