Work on a new rail link to connect Bulawayo and Beit Bridge will start in April this year, according to the chief planning officer of the National Railways of Zimbabwe, Agrippa Madlela. The new line will cost about R320 million and reduce the distance between Bulawayo and the South African border by between 185km and 200km.
The project is a joint venture between the railway authority and the new Limpopo Bridge project, the shadowy and mysterious organisation that partly owns the new bridge across the Limpopo. Its head office is still unknown, as are the shareholders.
The NRZ will own 85% of the company building the railway, to be called Beit Bridge - Bulawayo Railway Holdings, and the new Limpopo Bridge 15%.
Economists and transport analysts have roundly criticised the proposal, saying it is a waste of money as Bulawayo carries so little of the country's freight. They say that instead the Gweru to Beit Bridge line should be improved or more progress made with electrification.
