Vale, Mitsui plan Nkaya-Mchinji Railway line

Vale Logistics and its partner Mitsui of Japan have unveiled a new ambitious railway rehabilitation program for Nkaya-Mchinji route.

Officials broke the news during an official launch of a US$1billion (K750billion) Malawi stretch of the Nacala Corridor Railway line.

” We are in final stages to work with Malawi government and get the Nkaya-Mchinji railway line rehabilitated. This will help to complete the movement of goods from Nacala Port in Mozambique to Chitapa Zambia through Lilongwe and Mchinji,” officials told journalists after the launch.

Malawi Minister of Transport and Public Works Jappie Mhango was upbeat that government would facilitate all policy issues for the project to take off.

“Malawi government is committed to developing this transport sector. We would want to facilitate fast movement of goods at lower price,” Mhango said.

His Mozambican counterpart was optimistic that Vale currently hauling coal from its plant in Moatize Mozambique to Nacala Port through Malawi, will see the need to offer carriages for passengers and ease people’s travel between the countries as were the old days.

The railway line was built by Mota Engil, a multidisciplinary contractor whose delivery of the project has been touted as a bar raiser of all time by those who spoke at the launching ceremony.