Zim railway set for revamp

From page 1 to provide transportation from Zimbabwe to Mozambique at any given time,” he said.

“We want our trade to improve and to be assisted by railway carriage; so we are happy that our Mozambican counterparts have improved their system and we also want to improve ours.

“We have toured the railway line to assess the challenges that NRZ has been facing for quite some time now. The line, as you can see, is facing challenges because of the sharp curves that often lead to frequent derailment and landslides that are filling up the line.

“We are worried that our people are cutting down trees and resultantly increasing the process of sandflow onto the railway line.

“We have since ordered the police to put their hands on the deck and make sure this is stopped as a matter of urgency to safeguard the infrastructure,” he said.

Minister Mugadza said Zimbabwe and Mozambique are working on a proposal to transform customs services at Forbes Border Post by fast-tracking its expansion and introduce the one-stop-border concept to eradicate inefficiencies currently compromising trade competitiveness between the two republics.

Forbes Border Post, a gateway to the Beira Corridor, is often gridlocked with inefficient customs operations which have a negative impact on trade as the bottlenecks result in congestion-induced delays and long transit times.

The border, which is a major economic link between Harare and Beira,can be very busy as the demand for service outweighs current capacity.

The border is characterised by very long queues of heavily laden trucks on either side of the border, which often breeds corruption and illegal entries along the porous border.

“We are expecting Mozambican trains to ply up to Mutare, and this will help decongest the border. It is now the talk of the town that there is congestion at the border. The truckloads have multiplied to an unimaginable proportion, which is a positive thing to us because it means more trade.

“However, the problem is now that the infrastructure we have needs to be improved, so we are happy that while a new border will be put up very soon, the railway system is being revamped and we will have more goods carried by rail than by road.

“This will automatically reduce the number of trucks and decongest the border post. We have also directed that the border should operate for 24 hours,” he said.

NRZ official, Mr Andrew Bakasa said the parastatal has acquired modern locomotives and wagons from India.

He said the process takes about 18 months, meaning they will be delivered mid next year.

Mr Bakasa said plans are afoot to revamp the railway line to improve trafficability by Mozambicans trains.