The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has increased its operational capacity following the refurbishment of 100 high-sided wagons and three locomotives under a US$2.8 million Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with ferrochrome producer Zimasco.
The refurbished rolling stock was commissioned in Harare on Thursday by Transport Minister, Felix Mhona.
Mhona described the partnership as an innovative financing model that revives idle railway assets without placing an immediate burden on the Treasury, while securing a reliable export route for Zimasco’s chrome through the ports of Beira and Maputo.
“This partnership exemplifies a win-win financial engineering model. By funding the overhaul of idle wagons in exchange for freight charge offsets, Zimasco has secured a reliable supply chain route to international markets,” Mhona said.
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“At the same time, NRZ has expanded its operational capacity without placing an immediate fiscal burden on the treasury.”
The minister said a functional railway system was essential for Zimbabwe to achieve its goal of becoming an upper-middle-income economy by 2030.
He described rail transport as the cheapest and safest mode of moving bulk cargo, adding that the latest investment would help ease logistics bottlenecks, protect rehabilitated roads from damage caused by heavy trucks and improve the competitiveness of Zimbabwean chrome exports.
Mhona commended Zimasco for its confidence in NRZ and urged other mining companies, farmers and fuel importers to adopt similar partnership models.
“Zimbabwe is open for business. Our doors remain wide open for private participation in locomotives, wagons and infrastructure modernisation,” he said.
Government, working with the Mutapa Investment Fund, is pursuing larger recapitalisation projects, including track and signalling upgrades, the acquisition of new locomotives through Afreximbank and a resource-backed deal with China Railway International Group.
Mhona said US$10 million had been secured for the Chicualacuala-Plumtree and Machipanda-Harare railway lines through tripartite cooperation involving Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana.
He added that cooperation with South Africa on the North-South Corridor had also been revived.
Read the original article on New Zimbabwe.
