Zambia Railways Limited (ZRL) says out of the US$120 million government has injected in the rail company, one per cent will go to the purchase of new telecoms equipment that will improve communication on the mainline and improve safety.
Exhibiting at the Zambia International Trade Fair after ten-years of absence, Zambia Railways Director for Marketing, Sydney Tembo, said part of the money from government will be used for the rehabilitation of some railways infrastructure and rolling stock and purchase of passenger coaches.
“There is an overfull demand for passenger services. People scramble to get on our trains because they are 20 per cent cheaper than road fairs. In order to meet our customer demand, we need to purchase 50 passenger coaches. 21 per cent of the money will go buying the passenger coaches while 11 per cent will go purchasing more wagons,” he said.
Mr Tembo said 60 per cent of the money will go towards rehabilitating the tracks and will result in improved speed capacity and in the end offer better service deliveries to customers.
He said by September this year, ZRL would have started receiving equipment to start rehabilitating infrastructure because the company has started the tender procedure and will soon find a supplier.
Mr Tembo said freight transportation is the core business of ZRL and the company is involved in the transportation of inter-mine, local, exports, imports and transit cargo for Zambian and regional economies, adding that with new and improved equipment in place ZRL will compete favourably and network with other countries in the region.
ZANIS
Zambia Railways, i only hope you are planning to introduce electric trains, this will be cost effective for the operation of the company. its time we moved on from depending on oil which we don’t produce our self. Part of the money should go toward the construction of the power line along the rail.
That is it. Cosmetics instead of redevelopment of the Railway transport in Zambia. That is the reason why you hounded Chirwa out. I wish government had acted professionally in dealing with Chirwa.
I was also expectant and excited by the prospect of having Chirwa at ZRL. But he proved to be too pompous too soon!
No one is indispensable in government.
At least Prof. Chriwa was going to use the ZRL coach works factories in Kapiri and Kabwe to assembly the new passenger coaches and empower the workforce, with these lazy guys now in management its all about outsourcing everything no creation of skilled employment. Its no wonder we don’t move forward.
But common sense demands that ZRL first attends to the railway line itself which in deplirable state and has a residential area called ‘Railside’ developing along it between Chawama and Lilayi!.
but a tender to demolish structures built on the railway strip reserve ( 50m on either side of the railway line would cost far much less!
I was also expectant and excited by the prospect of having Chirwa at ZRL. But he proved to be too pompous too soon!
No one is indispensable in government.
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