News / National
Record railway derailments in just two months
05 Mar 2011 at 14:45hrs | Views
Lack of maintenance on the Beira-Zimbabwe railway caused 46 derailments in just two months, according to a spokesperson for the Mozambican port and rail company CFM, cited in the Beira daily paper "Diario de Mocambique".
CFM blames the Indian consortium Ricon, which is the majority shareholder in the Beira Railroad company (CCFB). The management of the entire Beira rail system - consisting of the line to Zimbabwe, and the Sena railway linking Beira to the Moatize coal basin in Tete province - was awarded to Ricon in 204, through an international tender.
Prior to Ricon taking over, CFM undertook some improvements on the line to Zimbabwe, which resulted in reducing the number of derailments from 169 in 2000 to 53 in 2004.
CCFB/Ricon was supposed to continue this work and hired local companies to rehabilitate several stretches of the track.
"Apparently, this work was not done properly due to lack of experience on the part of the companies hired plus poor inspection by CCFB", said the CFM source. "As a result the railway has gone into rapid decline, to the point where there are now derailments virtually every day".
He regarded the state of the line as "deplorable" in some areas, where sleepers are missing, and there is even a shortage of screws to tighten the rails. The railway workers lack the basic tools to align the tracks properly.
Derailments occur on both the man line and the secondary lines. Missing sleepers, or with sleepers in a poor condition, the secondary lines are no longer in a condition to bear the weight of locomotives and wagons.
All this adds to the arguments of those, such as CFM chairperson Rosario Mualeia, who want to see the government cancel the lease given to CCFB/Ricon.
Up to now the main argument against Ricon has been its failure to finish reconstruction of the Sena line on time. But its inability to maintain the line to Zimbabwe, which was functioning reasonably well in 2004, indicates that Ricon is unable to handle even fairly simple tasks
CFM blames the Indian consortium Ricon, which is the majority shareholder in the Beira Railroad company (CCFB). The management of the entire Beira rail system - consisting of the line to Zimbabwe, and the Sena railway linking Beira to the Moatize coal basin in Tete province - was awarded to Ricon in 204, through an international tender.
Prior to Ricon taking over, CFM undertook some improvements on the line to Zimbabwe, which resulted in reducing the number of derailments from 169 in 2000 to 53 in 2004.
CCFB/Ricon was supposed to continue this work and hired local companies to rehabilitate several stretches of the track.
"Apparently, this work was not done properly due to lack of experience on the part of the companies hired plus poor inspection by CCFB", said the CFM source. "As a result the railway has gone into rapid decline, to the point where there are now derailments virtually every day".
He regarded the state of the line as "deplorable" in some areas, where sleepers are missing, and there is even a shortage of screws to tighten the rails. The railway workers lack the basic tools to align the tracks properly.
Derailments occur on both the man line and the secondary lines. Missing sleepers, or with sleepers in a poor condition, the secondary lines are no longer in a condition to bear the weight of locomotives and wagons.
All this adds to the arguments of those, such as CFM chairperson Rosario Mualeia, who want to see the government cancel the lease given to CCFB/Ricon.
Up to now the main argument against Ricon has been its failure to finish reconstruction of the Sena line on time. But its inability to maintain the line to Zimbabwe, which was functioning reasonably well in 2004, indicates that Ricon is unable to handle even fairly simple tasks
Source - Byo24NEWS
