Assembly of the financial envelope for the Moatize/Macuse railroad line project is expected to be complete in the first half of 2018, whereby the construction work should begin immediately, said Thai Moçambique Logística (TML) managing director Mamed Latif.
Latif was speaking at the 53rd Maputo International Fair. He explained that US$2.1 billion had already been mobilised for the project, whose final cost is estimated at just over US$3 billion, reports the Maputo daily Notícias.
The line conceived to transport coal mined in Tete province will also be used to carry agricultural products grown in the region as well as passengers, he said, adding that although the gauge was the same as other railways in Mozambique, it will allow more tonnage per wagon, “making it more competitive compared to those already operating.”
The railway between Tete and Macuse is considered the biggest entirely new project conceived since Mozambique’s independence in 1975, given that the railway between Moatize and Nacala, more than 900 km long, used existing line in some sections.
The project will be built by a consortium comprising Portugal’s Mota-Engil construction group and the China National Complete Engineering Corporation, a subsidiary of the China Machinery Engineering Corporation group, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The contract duration is 44 months; the cost US$2.389 billion.
Thai Moçambique Logística groups Thailand’s Italthai Industrial Company Limited, with a 60 percent stake, Mozambique’s state-owned Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM), with 20 percent, and the Corredor de Desenvolvimento da Zambézia business group (Codiza), also with 20 percent. It will be in direct competition with the historic Sena line linking Tete to the port of Beira in Sofala province and with the Nacala Corridor linking the Moatize region to the deepwater port at Nacala-a-Velha in Nampula province. (Macauhub)
