Zambia to Rehabilitate 150km of Three Railway Lines
Chamwe Kaira
Zambia plans to rehabilitate 150km of the Zambia Railways, TAZARA and Mulobezi Railway lines, the 2024 budget documents have revealed. Total railway transport rehabilitation is expected to reach 67 million Kwacha, up from K57 million in the 2023 budget, according to the figures in the budget.
The Ministry of Finance allocated K234.4 million to the Road and Rail Transport Services Sub-programme in the budget. The Ministry of Transport and Logistics will embark on pursuing the key result areas as set out in the Eighth National Development Plan (8NDP). The total estimates of expenditure for the Ministry of Transport in 2024 is K504.8 million.
Overall, the Air, Road, Maritime and Railway Transport Development Programme has been allocated K388.2 million with part has been set aside for the acquisition of assets which include railway transport rehabilitation and the development of maritime harbour infrastructure.
The Ministry of Finance said the allocations to the Air, Road, Maritime and Railway Transport Development Programme will enable the government to maintain, develop, modernise and integrate rail, air and water transport infrastructure as well as facilitate post concession operations of Walvis Bay Dry Port.
The government further plans to conduct a corridor route assessment and promulgate one transport regulation in order to ensure harmony with the Tripartite Transit Transport Facilitation Programme (TTTFP) model laws.
The Zambia Railways has a network stretching almost 1,200 km and covers the entire area between Victoria Falls Bridge on the border with Zimbabwe and Sakania on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo including the country’s Copperbelt Province, the copper mining hub. Zambia Railways connects Tanzania Zambia Railways Authority (TAZARA) at Kapiri- Mposhi in central Zambia. The Chipata-Mchinji network that connects Zambia to Malawi and Mozambique is also part of the Zambia Railways network.
During the 2021 fiscal year, the company moved a total of 884,771metric tons of cargo and provided its passenger service to 102,498 people.
The budget documents showed that K17.2 million with be spent on rehabilitation of TAZARA railway line in Zambia. The Zambian government recently announced a significant development for TAZARA), when it revealed that a Chinese concessionaire is poised to take control of the railway as early as the first quarter of 2024.
TAZARA, a multimillion-dollar railway project inaugurated in 1976, stands as the most significant single foreign-aid project ever undertaken by the Chinese government.
Budget documents showed that K1 million kwacha was allocated to the rehabilitation of the Mulobezi Railway line.
In May, Zambia Railways Limited temporarily suspended the operations of Mulobezi passenger train service from Livingstone to Mulobezi and vice versa.
The suspension was necessitated by the unsafe condition of Bombwe Bridge, which is being repaired after the government allocated funds for its repair.
The project is estimated to take 33 months and consists of a five-span railway bridge of approximately 75 m total length. The bridge is designed with substructures comprising four reinforced concrete piers and abutments whose foundations are piled.
Mulobezi Railway was originally constructed to carry timber from Mulobezi to Livingstone in the Southern Province of Zambia.
