Nyusi inaugurates rail bridge over Umbeluzi river in Boane, Mozambique

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Nyusi inaugurates rail bridge over Umbeluzi river in Boane, Mozambique

7:37 CAT | 29 Sep 2016

Noticias

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday inaugurated a new rail bridge over the Umbeluzi river in Boane district, Maputo province.

The bridge is on the Goba line, which links the port of Maputo to landlocked Swaziland.

The chairperson of Mozambique’s publicly owned ports and rail company, CFM, Vitor Gomes, told the ceremony that CFM had opted to build a new bridge rather than rehabilitate the old one, despite the increased cost.

The old bridge, dating from the 1930s, was in a poor state of repair, with its supporting pillars showing serious signs of decay. Gomes said the new bridge will support a weight of 27 tonnes per axle, compared with only 20 tonnes per axle on the old bridge. Trains of over 100 wagons can pass along the new bridge, compared with trains of only 50 wagons on the old one.

The most significant cargo expected to use the bridge is sugar from Swaziland (estimated at 300,000 tonnes a year), and Mozambican limestone from Salamanga (600,000 tonnes a year).

The 362 metre long bridge was inaugurated just 15 months after the first stone was laid.

Nyusi expressed satisfaction at the quality of the bridge, and urged the local population to be watchful, ensuring that the bridge is not sabotaged by thieves stealing ballast or parts of the line.

“Boane has the mission of looking after this bridge”, said the President. “It has the noble task of ensuring that not a single sleeper, not a single screw, not a single reflector, and not a single kilo of ballast is removed”.

This was a modern and good quality structure, added Nyusi, which would guarantee the safe transport of people and goods, and would attract more traffic to use the Goba Line.

“Traffic must flow over this bridge”, he said, advising CFM “to be commercially aggressive in mobilising traffic, otherwise the bridge will not have a speedy return on the investment”.

Source: AIM