Rail link to Malawi

Mozambique’s publicly owned ports and railway company (CFM) will invest 30 million US dollars in the rehabilitation of the Dona Ana-Vila Nova da Fronteira railroad spur, in the central province of Tete, to re-establish the rail connection with Malawi, according to a report in Monday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

Augusto Abudo, the managing director of the CFM central division, said the money will be disbursed by the company and the groundwork for the project, meant to end in September 2021, is underway. The branch line is 115 kilometres long, of which 44 kilometres are on the Mozambican side between Dona Ana and Vila Nova da Fronteira, and the remaining 71 kilometres on the stretch from Vila Nova da Fronteira to Nsange-Bangula in Malawi.The next phase, said Abudo, will consist of clearing the bush from the route of the line. Work on this has already begun on the Malawian side. When operational, the railway will connect Malawi to the central Mozambican port of Beira “When the line is working, cargo to and from Malawi will be ferried along the Sena Rail line to the Port of Beira,” said Abudo. He stressed that the line bring great benefits not only to CFM but also to the country because of the jobs and related businesses it will create.

The resumption of the rail link follows the understandings between the Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, and his Malawian counterpart, Lazarus Chakwera, in October, when the two leaders met in Tete. The rail connection between the two countries was interrupted in the 1980s at the height of the war of destabilisation, pitting the government against the apartheid-backed Renamo rebels.