21 March 2008
Maputo — The reconstruction of the Sena rail line, which runs from Dondo, in the central Mozambican province of Sofala, to the Moatize coal mines in Tete cannot possibly be completed on schedule, according to a report in the Beira daily paper, "Diario de Mocambique".
The railway was completely destroyed by the apartheid-backed Renamo rebels during the war of destabilisation, and no trains have run on it for two and a half decades. Rebuilding the line is crucial for exporting the Moatize coal: the Brazilian mining giant, CVRD, which holds the concession on the Moatize coal basin, hopes to move two million tonnes of coal a year down the Sena line to the port of Beira.
The total length of track to be rebuilt is 670 kilometres. To date 191 kilometres on the main line have been completed and 55 kilometres on the branch line to the sugar town of Marromeu. So about 37 per cent of the work has been done - although the original plan was that, by this stage, over 50 per cent should have been completed.
The contract states that the work is to be done in 36 months starting from November 2005. But it is now quite impossible to complete the job by November of this year.
The Indian consortium Rites and Ircon International (RICON) are in charge of the work, and RICON is also the main shareholder in the Beira Railroad Company (CCFB), which holds the lease on the entire Beira rail system. The cost of reconstruction is borne mainly by a World Bank loan of 104.5 million US dollars, but CCFB and RICON are also putting in 40 million dollars of their own money.
However, the materials used in the reconstruction are more expensive now than they were in 2005, and so CCFB has been obliged to find 29 million dollars more than originally projected.
The reason given for the delay, by CCFB project director Siba Samantarya, is that the company found it difficult to mobilise the necessary equipment from abroad. An additional complication was caused by the flooding in the Zambezi valley in January and February, which damaged two kilometres of rebuilt track on the Marromeu spur. Trains to Marromeu will therefore not start running in April, as had been hoped, but in May.
Samantaray thought that the delays would push conclusion of the reconstruction into the middle of 2009. "We're sure that in June next year we will reach Moatize town", he said. As for rehabilitation of the Dona Ana rail bridge which carries the Sena line over the Zambezi, Samantary was confident that it will be concluded this month.
In addition to the Dondo factory producing concrete sleepers, a second factory has been installed in Sena town on the south bank of the Zambezi. Total production is now 600 sleepers a day.
The Sofala Provincial Director of Transport and Communications, Manuel Guimaraes, told "Diario de Mocambique" that CCFB has not yet informed the government of any alteration to the deadline for finishing the job. He thought the Zambezi floods were no justification, since flooding in the rainy season was a possibility that should have been foreseen.
Nonetheless Guimaraes said he was satisfied at the current pace of reconstruction. On the main line, he thought that passenger and goods trains could soon start circulating as far as Inhaminga.
Pf/ (564)
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