Zimbabwe to build new railway line network

THE government is going to create a new railway line network outside the existing structure as it prepares the country to move over 5 million metric tonnes of goods in the coming years, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said.

VP Mnangagwa said the rehabilitation and refurbishment of the country's rail network was not adequate to service the projected economic growth adding that a new railway line from Mozambique to Zambia via the Zambezi River was in the pipeline.

Responding to a question on mechanisms put in place by the government to breathe life into the ailing National Railways of Zimbabwe in Gweru on Friday, VP Mnangagwa said the government was in consultation with Mozambique for a railway line coming from that country to Zambia via the Zambezi River.

He said the existing rail infrastructure had limited capacity to steer the economic growth of the country as it could only move a mere 1,2 million metric tonnes of goods annually.