Published: 17 July 2013

THE National Railways of Zimbabwe is courting potential investors to build a railway line that will link the country to Kafue in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the general manager, Air Commodore Mike Karakadzai, has said.

Responding to a question from an official from Pretoria Portland Cement whether there were plans to build a railway network in the northeast of the country where the cement manufacturer plans to set up a multi-million dollar factory, Air Karakadzai said the NRZ had plans to extend the railway lines from Shamva and Lions Den going northwards.

"It's a green project and we have a plan for that," he said at a symposium organised by the parastatal recently.

Air Karakadzai said they were trying to court investors under the Build-Operate-Transfer model and a number of investors had shown interest in the project.

He said because of developments taking place in the region, such as massive coal mining in Mozambique's Tete province, any rail development project in those areas had the qualities of being a Sadc project.

At present, the country's rail network in the north terminates at Lions Den in Mashonaland West and Shamva in Mashonaland Central.

Zimbabwe has had success in the construction of BOT projects in the rail sector.

In the 1990s, the government gave a 30- year concession to the Bulawayo Beitbridge Railway to build and run a train service between Bulawayo and Beitbridge.
- chronicle

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