New railways will see development of Mozambique district

Mozambican president Armando Guebuza said that the new railway lines that will cross Mutarara district, in the western province of Tete, will bring new socio-economic development to the area, reports news agency, AIM. He was referring to plans for new rail lines to move coal from Tete to the Indian Ocean. Currently the mining companies export their coal along the Sena line to the port of Beira. But this railway cannot handle more than around six million tonnes of cargo a year, and within a few years it is hoped that up to 100 million tonnes a year will be exported from the Moatize coal basin. One of the plans to diversify the coal export routes is to build a new line branching off the Sena line in Mutarara, and passing through Zambezia province to a new deep water port to be built at Macuse. Another line will cross Mutarara, and head through southern Malawi before it joins the existing northern railway to the port of Nacala.