News / National
Zimbabwe govt urged to take over Rail Network Maintenance
26 Aug 2011 at 11:12hrs | Views
The Zimbabwe government should take over maintainance of the railway infrastructure in the same way it does roads and airports, an official said on Thursday.
National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) spokesperson Fanuel Masikati said the government should take over the responsibility of regulating the railway sector and let the NRZ be a player, New Ziana reported.
"It is a fact that our competitors are not responsible for maintaining the roads since government is doing that," he said.
Maintenance of the country's railway network, which is more than 100 years old, has been the responsibility of sole operator, the NRZ.
Government has, however, periodically supported the NRZ, availing $7.4 million for upgrading the rail network last year, an amount far short of the $550 million that the utility requires to restore viability.
"We really need a lot of support towards upgrading the railway network," said Masikati.
He said NRZ was burdened by various capital projects which were failing to take off due to limited financial resources, citing the Centralised Trains Control System (CTC) which was vandalised as an example.
The NRZ is currently using the Paper Order System (POS) to coordinate the movement of rail traffic.
Much of the required resources would go towards rehabilitating the rail, acquiring new locomotives and wargons as well as financing new capital projects.
"The CTC system is no longer in use, we had to resort to an alternative system," he said, noting that the NRZ was looking to forge Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to recover.
The World Bank (WB) has advised the NRZ, which is saddled with debts, to close over 60 percent of its worn out railway network.
National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) spokesperson Fanuel Masikati said the government should take over the responsibility of regulating the railway sector and let the NRZ be a player, New Ziana reported.
"It is a fact that our competitors are not responsible for maintaining the roads since government is doing that," he said.
Maintenance of the country's railway network, which is more than 100 years old, has been the responsibility of sole operator, the NRZ.
Government has, however, periodically supported the NRZ, availing $7.4 million for upgrading the rail network last year, an amount far short of the $550 million that the utility requires to restore viability.
"We really need a lot of support towards upgrading the railway network," said Masikati.
He said NRZ was burdened by various capital projects which were failing to take off due to limited financial resources, citing the Centralised Trains Control System (CTC) which was vandalised as an example.
The NRZ is currently using the Paper Order System (POS) to coordinate the movement of rail traffic.
Much of the required resources would go towards rehabilitating the rail, acquiring new locomotives and wargons as well as financing new capital projects.
"The CTC system is no longer in use, we had to resort to an alternative system," he said, noting that the NRZ was looking to forge Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to recover.
The World Bank (WB) has advised the NRZ, which is saddled with debts, to close over 60 percent of its worn out railway network.
Source - New Ziana
