Mozambique has approved an ambitious project to invest $11 billion in a totally new 2,000 km railway line to link all the country’s provinces over the next fourteen years, reports the official daily paper Noticias on Monday.
The new railway line will include bridges and 6,400 kilometers of related roads.
According to Noticias, the project, already approved by the council of ministers, is part of the Strategy for Integrated Development of the Transport System.
Mozambique is currently rebuilding its transport system which was destroyed and neglected during the 16 years of a devastating civil war.
Noticias quotes a source from the Transport and Communications Ministry as saying the new project was expected to be launched with special planning activities, definition of the railway route, bridges and roads, as well as the development of some social and environmental activities.
The state-run paper says the first project implementation will run from 2009 and 2023 and the railway line is expected to cost US$5 billion during this phase and remaining US$6 billion would be spent on construction of roads and bridges.
This Global Operational Plan, according to Noticias, aims to create the development corridor to make it easier to implement integrated planning and management, via which rail transport interacts with ports, roads and anchor investments in their area of influence.
Mozambique’s road and railway network is still badly damaged despite a decade of steady economic growth after the war.
Source African Press Agency
