SENA LINE CAPACITY TO QUADRUPLE THIS YEAR

 Improvements to the Sena railway, which runs from the Moatize coal basin in the western Mozambican province of Tete to the port of Beira, could bring its capacity up to 12 million tonnes of cargo a year, according to Deputy Fisheries Minister, Gabriel Muthisse.Muthisse, acting as government spokesperson, told reporters on Wednesday that a meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) that day had discussed a Transport Development Strategy, aimed at reducing transaction costs through the rational use of all modes of transport – road, rail, air, maritime and river. The basic conditions for implementing this strategy, he said, include the “definition, rehabilitation, improvement and construction of roads, rail lines, ports and airports”. He took the Sena line as an example. Currently it can move three million tonnes of coal a year from Moatize to Beira – manifestly insufficient for the huge amounts of coal that mining companies hope to extract from the Moatize basin in the near future.But rehabilitation of the stretch between Beira and the town of Dondo is under way which should double the capacity to six million tonnes a year. Muthisse said that this work should be concluded in July or August.This month, the government is launching a tender to double the capacity of the line again, bringing it to 12 million tonnes a year,“It is hoped that by the end of 2012, the Sena line will be in a fit state to carry 12 million tonnes a year”, said Muthisse. “So the idea is to grow from an annual capacity of three million to 12 million tonnes by the end of this year”.He also announced that rehabilitation of the second line in the central rail system, from Beira to Machipanda, on the border with Zimbabwe, is under way, and should double the capacity of this line, from three million to six million tonnes of cargo a year. He added that the Transport Ministry is looking into the possibility of raising the capacity of the Machipanda line to 25 million tonnes a year.This, however, would only make economic sense with a dramatic increase in the Zimbabwean use of the line, which in turn depends on a sustained period of economic recovery and growth in Zimbabwe. Muthisse also announced that this year’s wage increase for state employees will be a flat rate six per cent. The increase in the minimum wage in the public administration was set last week at six per cent, and the government has decided not to widen differentials. Thus the six per cent increase will be applied across the board from the lowest to the highest pay categories in the public administration and in the defence and security services.The state pension for all categories also rises by six per cent.