Mozambique’s state-owned port and rail company, Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) has announced that it intends to have the storm-damaged rail linkage from the Port of Beira repaired by the end of April.
But private sector commentators fear that it will take longer to undo the devastation of Cyclone Freddy when it moved across the interior, ripping up sections of the Sena line going north-west from the port into Tete Province and beyond to Malawi.
Severe flooding washed away sections of the line’s superstructure, causing tracks to dangle in mid-air where they used to be grounded by ballast.
Mozambican news agency AIM reports that CFM worker teams are busy in the Doa district, re-grounding sections of the line and repairing infrastructure across the Chipemberre and Nhavusi rivers.
The damage done has especially weighed down on bulk exports to the port, more specifically from coal mining in the Moatize region.
This was confirmed by Octavia Simba, director of the Tete Provincial Infrastructure Services.
Compounding repair work is the tricky business of moving heavy yellow metal machinery from Tete City to Doa using dilapidated road infrastructure,
Simba was unable to provide deadlines for repair work in support of the view that a month is enough to fix the Sena line.
He said: “In more or less 30 days it will be possible to resume traffic along the line.”
