James Hall
MAPUTO-BASED president of the Southern African Railways Association (SARA), Gideon Mahlalela, has expressed satisfaction at the rate of rail infrastructure improvements in the country, aside from emergency repair work done in the wake of summer cyclone damage.
Mahlalela said SARA was happy with the rate of privatisation in the Mozambique rail and ports system, in keeping with government goals.
Mahlalela, the CEO of Swaziland Railway, said SARA was pleased that funds had been acquired to rehabilitate the Limpopo railway line, and that rehabilitation work on the Nacala railway line had been largely completed.
SARA's agenda, says Mahlalela, is to press for and participate in the improvement of all railway lines in the SADC region, and along with Mozambique's ports and rails corporation CFM is targeting four Mozambique routes: the Goba Corridor, the Ressano Garcia Corridor, the Beira Corridor and the Nacala Corridor, all of which are key for transporting freight through Mozambique to local destinations and to other SADC countries.
On the subject of road transport, Mahlalela added, I must also commend Mozambique and Angola for maintaining low road vehicle Gross Combination Mass (GCM) of 38 tons, when all other SADC countries have GCMs at 50 tons or above. He said road transport had a profit advantage over rail in SADC because road users paid a proportionately smaller share for road infrastructure development and maintenance than rail customers paid for rail infrastructure. Because of governments' subsidies of road infrastructure, road freight transport enjoys an unfair advantage over rail transport, he said.
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