Source: Zim, Zambia seal historic US$2bn railway line deal – herald
Rutendo Nyeve
ZIMBABWE and Zambia have taken a decisive step towards reshaping Southern Africa’s transport landscape after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the construction of a strategic railway line from Lion’s Den in Zimbabwe to Kafue in Zambia.
The MoU was signed yesterday by Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona and his Zambian counterpart Frank Tayali during the meeting of the Emerging Railways Properties (Pvt) Limited (ERP) Council of Ministers in Victoria Falls.
The 311-kilometre railway line will traverse multiple areas in Zimbabwe, including Chirundu, Hurungwe Safari Area, Makuti, Chakuti and Lion’s Den, while covering four districts in Zambia — Kafue, Mazabuka, Chikankata and Chirundu.
Of the total length, 94 kilometres will be in Zambia and 217 kilometres in Zimbabwe.
The project follows the existing highway alignment and will use the 1067mm Cape Gauge, with provisions for future upgrade to Standard Gauge.
Sixteen stations and two marshalling yards will be established along the route.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development Engineer Joy Makumbe said the rail route will reduce transit distances.
The estimated construction cost for the project stands at US$2,18 billion.
Minister Mhona said the project was a manifestation of President Mnangagwa’s visionary leadership.
“We have been championing the issues to do with the Vision 2030 agenda, where we are going to be having an upper middle-income society as a map,” Minister Mhona said.
“We are not looking at our countries in isolation; we are looking at the entire corridor. In this particular case, we are looking at the Beira Corridor. We had massive benefits attributed to that corridor as a result of logistics so that anyone into logistics will favour that country.”
Work on the Chirundu Border Post, Minister Mhona also revealed, would commence in June, further enhancing connectivity and ease of doing business.
“We are talking of ease of doing business in terms of lowering costs. If logistics costs are high, it goes back to the grassroots where you are impacted on the pricing model. We want to resuscitate our railway line so that we ease the burden on our roads. The cost of reconstructing our roads will be less because we won’t have the routine maintenance — the burden will have been transferred back to the track,” he said.
Zambia’s Minister of Transport and Logistics Frank Tayali dismissed rumours that Zambia was not committed to the corridor, affirming his country’s dedication to regional connectivity.
“We must at all costs promote regional connectivity. There were rumours that we may not be interested in this particular corridor, but the contrary is what is actually true. Zambia will do everything possible to open up as many corridors as possible,” Minister Tayali said.
“Evidence is already there that the more we have put priority on other corridors, other than the traditional corridors, we have seen the cost of transportation actually come down.”
Minister Tayali cited competition between the ports of Dar es Salaam and Beira as evidence of how new routes drive down costs, noting that Tanzania had moved to offer concessions on port handling fees.
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