Bulk loads from Botswana’s coal fields on the border of South Africa could form part of the open-access network project currently under way at Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), but will require cross-border linkage infrastructure.
Speaking at the South African Railways Association Conference in Sandton, TFR chief executive Russell Baatjies said coal loads from the coal fields out east, mainly at Mmamabula and Morupule, could significantly add to the Department of Transport (DoT) in SA’s ambitions to ramp up rail volumes.
It could also tie in with the 11 private access slot allocations awarded to 24 applicants since the third-party process got under way last December.
However, Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager (Trim) will have to come to the party.
Interestingly, South Africa’s immediate northern neighbour, Zimbabwe, is trying to position itself as a transit rail enabler for achieving the same – getting Botswana coal out to the nearest port, in this instance Techobanine, described by many as a Mozambican pipe dream.
Whatever the detractors say, it’s a major trilateral railway and port project aimed at enhancing bulk load transportation.
The project involves building a new deep-water port at Techobanine, south of the Port of Maputo, and a 1 700-km railway line linking this port through Zimbabwe to Botswana at an infrastructure development cost of $6.5 billion.
To get Trim to add a rail link from the existing network in the region of Lephalale across the Limpopo into Botswana will be a lot less expensive.
From an operational point of view, TFR “would be keen to get involved”, Baatjies said.
“It’s good volumes
“It will be a good project,” he said.
“It's about building the line and making sure that you connect Botswana with South Africa and eventually the coal line. To my mind, you'll also have to look at the coal line capacity because if you build a line from Botswana to South Africa, you also need to look at what it is that the South African coal mines want to do.
“If they also want the capacity on the line, we'll have to look at increasing the capacity on the primary coal line in line with what you're building on the Botswana side. Coal is where we've seen some good growth, and we keep on increasing the capacity.”
With the potential of open-access partners getting involved, it’s looking increasingly likely that the DoT could meet its target of adding 20 million tonnes to existing rail freight volumes by 2027.
