28 January 2008
Maputo — The traffic along the railway between the northern Mozambican port of Nacala and Malawi was interrupted again on Saturday, when heavy rains damaged a 30 metre stretch of track.
Monday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias" reports that the Northern Development Corridor (CDN), the private-led consortium that holds the lease on the Nacala port and rail system, has sent a technical team to repair the damage.
The line was cut in the district of Nampula-Rapale, west of the provincial capital, Nampula city, forcing CDN to stop all trains along the line. The torrential rains washed away a culvert over which the line crossed, and the soil and ballast that supported the tracks.
CDN staff say it will take about five days to repair the damage, assuming that it stops raining. CDN manager Fernando Couto says that this five day interruption of traffic will cost the company more than a million US dollars.
This interruption adds to the problems that CDN has been facing in transporting consignments of imported fertilizer to Malawi and containers of Malawian tobacco exports to Nacala port.
This situation has led some Malawian companies to use the more expensive option of road transport to move goods to and from the port. The fertilizer is urgently needed for the planting season in Malawi.
Domestic trade is also disrupted, since Mozambican vegetable producers use the train to place their goods in markets in Nampula and Nacala. When the train is not running, the price of these goods soars.|
This is the second interruption to traffic along the Nacala corridor this month. The first lasted from 31 December to 7 January.
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