Pledges rapid resumption of traffic in Sena railway line

Mozambican Transport Minister Carlos Mesquita has pledged that the movement of trains along the Sena railway line, between the Moatize coal basin in the western province of Tete and the port of Beira, will resume shortly, and under safe conditions.Interviewed in Thursday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, Mesquita was reacting to the announcement by the Brazilian mining company Vale that it is suspending the transport of coal along the Sena line, following two attacks last week by gunmen of the Renamo rebel movement against Vale trains. No-one was killed in the attacks, but two crew members were injured.“The government is committed to establishing conditions so that the trains circulate again as quickly as possible”, said Mesquita. “We are creating security conditions on the ground to guarantee, not only the circulation of trains, but also of passenger vehicles”.He did not give any details of the planned measures. The paralysis of the Sena line is a blow not only to Vale, but also to the Mozambican rail and port company, CFM, which has been deprived of revenue, and to the general public who no longer have a reliable means of transport between Beira and Tete and points in between.“It is difficult to quantify the losses arising from the paralysis of rail traffic”, said Mesquita. “The only certainty we have is that the losses are very high. In Tete there are trains waiting to carry coal to Beira, while in Beira port there are trains awaiting the conditions to return to Moatize”.As for the Renamo attacks against National Highway Seven (EN7), which takes traffic from Malawi and Zambia through Tete and Manica provinces, and then on to Beira, Mesquita denied claims from Malawian officials that the Malawian government is in contact with the Mozambican authorities about security conditions on Mozambican roads.Last week, Renamo attacked and destroyed 12 trucks in Barue district, on EN7. Four of these trucks were owned by Malawian companies. According to Malawian sources, several of the trucks were carrying fuel for the landlocked country, and about 97,000 US dollars worth of fuel went up in flames.Mesquita said Mozambique too is concerned about the damage to neighbouring countries, since it has a national, regional and international development programme to implement.“As everybody knows, our rail corridors do not serve only Mozambique, but also countries of the hinterland”, he said. “Thus we have an obligation to maintain conditions of stability to that merchandise moves rapidly and with the lowest transport costs possible”.