NRZ to commission 31 new wagons

The cash-strapped National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) will next month commission 31 new wagons in a bid to rejuvenate its operations.

Speaking at a transport sector pre-budget consultative workshop with the Dexter Nduna-led Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport, Transport ministry permanent secretary, Munesu Munodawafa said NRZ required serious recapitalisation.

"But that industry is expensive, and so we have not yet secured funding for NRZ, as it is an on-going process," he said.

"NRZ will be commissioning 31 new wagons in the next two weeks, which we purchased from outside the country from our own resources, and, as we are talking, they are now in Bulawayo and around November 3 to 5, we will commission the wagons and there is something positive happening."

Munodawafa said the parastatal needed overall refurbishment of truck infrastructure to the tune of $6,5 million and $1,8 million for signalling equipment.

Pumula MP, Godfrey Malaba said the biggest problem with NRZ was not wagons, but the old rails, traffic lines and a non-functional communication system, resulting in train drivers using mobile phones to communicate.

"We have seen a lot of derailments and, most importantly, we need to attend first to those things posing danger," he said.

Munodawafa said, as a former NRZ general manager, he was aware of what is needed at NRZ.

"It requires a number of things to be attended to such as infrastructure. Negotiations are still ongoing on funding rail and signalling, which requires a lot of money. At the moment, we are concentrating on other things that need to be attended to, including wagons and locomotives," he said.

Munodawafa said up to $50 million was needed to replace the signalling equipment.

"Some of our wagons are old and have problems with roller bearings and some of the wagons may drop off because the bearings heat up. That does not mean we are not looking at repairs of other infrastructure, but we bought wagons because the NRZ had already mobilised the funding for it," he said.

Nduna said the consultations were part of the constitutional requirements that Parliament goes out to the people to get their views on national budgets, Bills and other issues.