OVER $240 MILLION REQUIRED FOR RECAPITALIZATION OF ZAMBIA RAILWAYS LIMITED
By Tellah Hazinji
Zambia Railways Limited-ZRL- says it needs $248 million investment to finance it’s business strategic plan aimed at recapitalizing the company.
Addressing the media in Lusaka today, ZRL Board Chairperson Emmanuel Hachipuka says the company is currently operating at a loss owing to operational challenges that need to be addressed.
Mr. Hachipuka says one of the most pressing challenges the railway firm is facing is the current track condition which is aged and in a poor state which he says can only support average train speeds of about 15kilometer per hour.
He says the deferred maintenance due to cash flow constraints has also contributed to the current condition of the railway infrastructure and rolling stock.
Mr. Hachipuka further explained that in terms of rolling stock, the locomotive situation has become dire with mainline locomotive availability averaging 1 Zambia Railways owned and 3 leased locomotives while shunt locomotives are averaging 3.
PHOENIX NEWS
Zambia Railways wasted an opportunity to rehabilitate the track infrastructure after it was given us$750m euro bond. The money would which was meant for track rehabilitation as directed by President Sata was misdirected. The state of Zambia Railways track is frighteningly poor and cannot be upgraded from revenue earned by the company. ZRL is now paying for decades of negligence. There is nothing right with the track beginning with the eroded formation, insufficient ballast/no ballast at all, wornout track component/no components, poor horizontal and vertical alignment and poor track turnouts. The track needs a kind of Marshall Plan to upgrade it to perhaps 60km per hour. Even if ZRL had mechanised track equipment, it cannot work due to the above reasons. It’s high time Bridge Assessment was done to all aged bridges for safety reasons