CEAR engages Lilongwe District Council to relocate encroachers of railway reserve to complete rail rehabilitation

* As Nkaya-Lilongwe railway operations set to resume soon as rehabilitation is near complete

* Council assures CEAR it will engage all the business committees who are plying their businesses along the rail line

By Andrew Mkonda, MANA & Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express

Central East African Railways Company Limited (CEAR) has asked Lilongwe District Council to remove and relocate people who had encroached the railway reserve to pave way for completion of rail rehabilitation.

A statement from CEAR says rehabilitation of the railway network from Nkaya to Kanengo, which passes through Lilongwe up to Mchinji, is is near its completion but some people were doing their businesses within the railway reserve — through Balang’ombe, Mweziwawala, and Nyanja railway links.

“During these works, heavy machinery will be moving back and forth through the railway link, eventually train operation will resume,” says the letter to the Council, while also indicating that CEAR will resume its railway operations within and outside Lilongwe soon.

Reacting to the request, Lilongwe District Commissioner, Lawford Palani said this is a welcome development as the railway transport will ease transportation and that businesses will boom — hence contributing to the growth of the economy of the district and the country at large.

“As you may be aware that railway train carries a lot of goods and at the same time we will be connected to other districts like Salima, Mchinji and Southern Region up to Chipata in Zambia.

“Our district is agricultural and is the hub of our country, so the people will have easy access to get into the district and other parts where the railway will be connected,” he said.

Palani then assured CEAR that the Council will soon engage all the business committees who are plying their businesses along the railway line, so that they give way to the development of a railway operation.

“I know the people took advantage because the railway line was not functional, but now they will have no excuse but follow proper procedures,” he said.

Government is advocating for railway transport saying a better rail network will help the country to reduce transport costs, lower commodity prices, and increase profits for agricultural produce.

Malawi railway network is headquartered at Limbe in Blantyre connecting with Mozambique through Limbe-Marka in Nsanje and connecting with Zambia’s Chipata Border through Limbe-Nkaya-Salima-Lilongwe-Mchinji.

At Nkaya, the rail branches off to Nayuchi for the Entre-Lagos border post of Mozambique. There is also a rail system from Moatize in Mozambique that passes through Mwanza-Neno-Nkaya-Liwonde up to Entre-Lagos that transports coal for Mozambique’s export.

Last year, Minister of Transport, Jacob Hara disclosed plans to introduce railway transport in the Northern Region to connect with Tanzania.

Reacting to the resumption of the railway service between Blantyre and Lilongwe, renowned social issues commentator, Onjezani Kenani observed that the restoration of railway services from Nkaya to Kanengo “is probably the best news our nation has had pertaining to its transport sector in the last 20 years”.

“Congratulations to the Chakwera government for creating an enabling environment to ensure this is possible,” he added. “As a nation, we need projects of this kind to facilitate the movement of goods and people at a lower cost.

“This is one way we can reduce the cost of production and catalyze industrialisation. Congratulations Central East African Railways.”

Andrew Nkoloma noted that the re-introduction of railway services between Lilongwe and Blantyre will mean a lot to the transportation and agricultural sectors in the country, saying: “We cannot talk of mega farms with poor transport network between the producer and the consumer.

“Many of our rural farmers along the railway line will have a cheaper option of transporting their goods to the market. Now that railway line between Blantyre and Lilongwe has been restored, CEAR, please up your marketing strategies and bring more awareness of your convenient option.

“Railway transport is by far the cheapest especially to farmers in the rural areas. If well managed this can also be the best channel for farm produce export into neighbouring Zambia and Mozambique.”

Last month, when the Parliamentary Committee on Budget & Finance the Shire Valley Transformation Programme (STVP) in Chikwawa to assess its progress, Project Coordinator Dr. Stanley Khaila said the railway is expected to play a huge role once the mega farm concept of the programme is completed.

Thus Khaila said SVTP was engaging management of rail transport to expedite with construction of the rail from Nsanje to Limbe that as by September this year, Chikwawa District farmers — that are closer to the  SVTP intake — are set to be provided with water for irrigation.

He emphasised that transportation of the agricultural produce from the Lower Shire to Limbe and other parts of the country will be for value addition as cost cutting measures.

The Members of Parliament — led by its chairperson, MP for Nsanje Lalanje, Gladys Ganda — were appraised the beneficiary communities that are close to the canal’s first phase from the intake will have water flowing into their fields once the secondary pipelines are completed while contractor, Synohydro continues with its 52km stretch of canal construction.

There are two contractors on site, Condril for the construction of the intake and 6km stretch of the canal passing through Majete Game Reserve and Synohydro for the 50km distance to Lengwe National Park.

The mega canal, touted as the biggest irrigation project in sub-Saharan Africa, is 118km long up to Bangula in Nsanje District and once completed, it will provide water for irrigation to over 22,280 hectares.

The STVP also has a mega farm concept through which beneficiary farmers were trained in commercial farming and assisted to form agricultural cooperatives have been registered as commercial entities.

The farmers were trained in formulating business plans while the programme itself is identifying investor off-takers for produce processing as value addition.

Thus Khaila’s emphasis on the Programe’s engagement with management of rail transport from Nsanje to Limbe to transport agricultural produce from the Lower Shire for value addition as cost cutting measures.

On another angle — when the country was experiencing fuel shortage — journalist Horace Nyaka posted on Facebook in June last year that once or twice a week, he visits Biwi Triangle, popularly known as pa matank to send parcels through taxis that ply their business on the Lilongwe-Blantyre M1 Road.

He wrote: “There are tens of small cars driving to Zomba and Blantyre as passenger service vehicles. In Blantyre, a similar point is Kameza. The same is the case in Mzuzu.

“As we continue to struggle with fuel (we need US$50m every month), I have been asking myself how much fuel we are blowing through these taxis. While 54 people can be transported in one bus, we are we are using 8 taxis to carry same number.

“On a day, hundreds of these taxis commute between our four cities, blowing thousands of litres of fuel and wearing out our roads. By having an organized public transport system, we will save a lot of money.

“We need good buses, trains and depots. Most people go to the taxis because the buses we have are substandard and the depots we have are near horrific.

“As we think of how to generate forex for fuel how about we start investing in something that will reduce usage of fuel. Public buses and train system would help us achieve that.

“Blantyre-Limbe has a railway line that we don’t use. Lilongwe is flat it wouldn’t be a challenge to put up a city rail system. Sometimes our troubles are self made.”