Maputo — For the first time in more than a quarter of a century, passenger and goods trains can now make the entire 547 kilometre journey from the central Mozambican port of Beira to Moatize, in Tete province, along the rebuilt Sena line, according to Candida Jone, Director of the Sena Line Reconstruction Brigade, interviewed in Friday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".

However, for the time being trains will only use the final section of the track, between Doa and Moatize, in the event of emergencies. Trains on this final stretch of 146 kilometres are still limited to speeds of 25 kilometres an hour, while the work of laying ballast is completed.

Other work still to be done is final alignment, consolidation and welding of the track. Only when this is completed will scheduled passenger trains run to Moatize again.

But passenger trains are already circulating on the stretch between Beira and the Dona Ana bridge over the Zambezi, and between Beira and Marromeu, on a Sena branch line.

The last train to reach Moatize ran 27 years ago. Then the line was shut down due to comprehensive sabotage by the apartheid-backed Renamo rebels, who ripped up the tracks, and, in 1986, blew up the Dona Ana bridge.

Reconstruction by the Indian contractor Rites and Ircon International (RICON) has been under way since 2006 and up until January had cost 137 million dollars. The reconstruction has been funded by the World Bank, the European Development Bank, and the shareholders of the Beira Railroad Company (CCFB), which holds the lease on the entire central Mozambican rail system. The shareholders of CCFB are RICON (51 per cent) and the public owned port and rail company CFM (49 per cent).

By the end of 2010, all the stations and halts along the Sena Line should be restored, at a cost of two million US dollars.

The reconstruction of the line should have concluded over a year ago, and Jone was angered at RICON's failure to respect deadlines. Because RICON continually complained that it was running out of materials, the finishing date was postponed from January 2009, to April, July, September and finally December. Even this deadline was not met - the reconstruction workers did not reach Moatize until January this year.

A technical team from CCFB, CFM, RICON and including an independent engineer has now made a detailed survey of the "residual work" still to be done. Within a week RICON is to deliver a timetable for each one of these tasks.

Jone, who is also the managing director of CFM's central region, declared "we are fed up with the failure to respect deadlines. We tried to use the penalty clauses in the contract, and as a means of pressure, we stopped paying for some of the work".

When that happened, RCON picked up the pace and began to work on Saturdays and Sundays, said Jone.

When the Sena line is fully operational, it is expected to play a key role in transporting coal exports from the Moatize coal basin to the port of Beira.