Govt to outlaw bulk transportation of goods by road

THE National Railways of Zimbabwe could earn over $2,1 billion, if Government proceeded with plans to outlaw bulk transportation of goods by road, which it could use to recapitalise operations.

Communication and Infrastructure Development Minister Joram Gumbo said early this month that Government would come up with a law to ban bulk transportation of goods by road; which he said would protect NRZ.

Such a policy would allow bulk transportation only by rail with NRZ managing just 3,4 million tonnes since January this year against capacity of 30 million tonnes a year.

This comes as Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said last week that a comprehensive capitalisation programme for the rail carrier has remained elusive.

Meanwhile, The NRZ says it will not meet its full year target of moving 4 million tons of freight after it moved 2. 5 million tons by the end of November this year.

The parastatal has failed to run profitably for years due to under-capitalization and ageing rolling stock. NRZ general manager Lewis Mukwada attributed the subdued performance to low business that was available during the first quarter of the year.

Mukwada said business started recovering in the last half of the year, due to maize imports and chrome ore exports that came later in the year. The NRZ has performed poorly over the past few years, and has incurred losses of over $200 million between 2009 and 2013.