Botswana company pushes for rail utility hub

A PRIVATE company in Botswana is looking to position the country as a rail utility hub in the Southern Africa region in a project to manufacture, refurbish and maintain rail wagons locally. InfraDev Botswana chairperson, Paul Paledi, believes Namibia is the alternative to congestion delays at Durban port, highlighting the need for a rail turnaround strategy in Botswana. “Furthermore there is a backlog of repairs in the rail business of 11 000 wagons. Most of these wagons are in South Africa and there is business there. We would like to market ourselves to get business because it has been ignored for quite a long time,” says Paledi. InfraDev’s US$10m project follows the creation of a consortium earlier this year comprising Australia’s Ansaldo Union Switch and Signals, Rail Project Group of Queensland, Australia and the American Latin Logistics of Brazil (ALL) to assist with the implementation of the project. This is not the first venture into Botswana’s rail arena for Ansaldo, which was appointed two years ago to design and construct the signalling and telecommunications infrastructure for the entire Botswana Railways network. Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Works and Transport, Gerald Thipe, said partnerships with Ansaldo on the project would improve efficiency and safety of BR operations, with agreements to form a joint venture entity to carry out the maintenance contract of the signalling and telecommunications infrastructure for eight years.