* The deteriorated section of the M1 Road at Chiweta in Rumphi District has immensely affected transportation
By Duncan Mlanjira
Minister of Transport & Public Works Jappie Mhango will on Monday commission rehabilitation works of the Chiweta-Karonga Road.
The Minister announced on Saturday the emergency rehabilitation works on the deteriorated section of the M1 Road at Chiweta in Rumphi District, which had immensely affected transportation.
The route is direct access for the land-locked Malawi to the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, the essential connection to the world on exports and imports.
Mhango inspected the affected section of the EU-funded M1 Road rehabilitation project, where he indicated that in the interim measure, contractor CHICO will lay gravel and construct concrete pads to improve the road’s passability ahead of the upcoming rainy season.
Roads Authority Chief Executive Officer, Eng. Joel Longwe also assured transporters that maintenance works will cover all critical sections to enhance road safety and ensure the smooth flow of traffic.
The 65.5-km Kacheche-Chiweta stretch is Lot 4 of the M1 rehabilitation project, which runs from the junction to Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in Lilongwe to Chiweta in Rumphi District.
The Minister reiterated that Government remains committed to improving road infrastructure and facilitating safe, reliable and efficient transport across the country, as reported by the Ministry’s media platform.
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However, calls are on the rise pressing the government to consider utilising rail and Lake Malawi as transport mode for heavy cargo, emphasising that trucks are contributing to endless deterioration of the main road networks.
Just this week, engineer Newton David Kambala — Board member of the Roads Authority appointed in July 2026 — published his thoughts on his Facebook account, saying Malawi’s roads are in disrepair as they carry 90% of all freight because our other modes have collapsed.
“Malawi, 62 years after independence, has sat on all possible modes of transport infrastructure development.
“It costs more to move a tonne of goods from Blantyre to Mzuzu than from Beira Port in Mozambique to Blantyre.
Malawi rail system that is underutilised
“Our rail, which should be carrying our heavy mining products from the North, our sugar, our tobacco and our cement, is largely idle.
“Our lake, which is our natural highway, is underutilised. Our air transport is expensive and disconnected from our domestic economy.
“We talk of increasing production, mega-farms, and serious mining in the North and Centre. But how do we take raw materials, semi-finished and value-added goods to market?
“How do we do this on 300MW of electricity for 22 million people in the 21st Century? You cannot industrialise without energy and you cannot trade without transport.”
Newton Kambala
Kambala thus explains that building the economy back would be easier if priority would be on “laying a foundation for tomorrow rather than rushing for short-term personal benefits”.
“We are eating the seed meant for planting. For 62 years, we have been open to chances and opportunities of various kinds, but we have treated transport as a road project, not as an economic system.
“We build a road here, patch a railway there, with no connection between them,” wrote Kambala, who suggested on five coordinated components:
a) Revive the spine — the railway: Concession the Nacala and Sena corridors to a serious private operator. Rail must carry mining, fuel, cement and fertilizer. Road must not.
b) Make roads feed rail and lake: Our road investment must focus on feeder roads that take produce from the farm to the nearest rail siding or lake port, not just more tarmac between cities.
c) Build lake transport: Develop Chipoka, Monkey Bay, Nkhata Bay and Chilumba as proper freight and passenger ports with scheduled services.
d) Connect air to economy: Make Kamuzu and Chileka airports true hubs where a farmer’s horticulture can get to Addis or Johannesburg in hours, not days.
e) Power the network: No machine runs without power. We must unbundle energy production and add at least 1000MW in the next 5 years to power industry and the transport system itself.
Rail transport system in the US, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railway company which is the largest freight railroad network in North America
“It is sad that with all the raw materials at hand — our land, our lake, our minerals, our young people — we are still failing to upgrade our transport to keep up with the speedy global village.”
The Malawi University of Business & Applied Sciences (MUBAS) alumnus, encouraged his fellow engineers, planners, and all professionals not to advocate for another road, but complement and rebuild the already existing transport system — the rail and water.
Malawi rail system connects to both Mozambique’s ports of Beira and Nacala from Marka in Nsanje to Nayuchi in Machinga via Limbe and Nkaya.
From Nkaya it’s all the way to Mchinji via Salima and Lilongwe. Salima is a Lake Malawi port district with Liwonde in Machinga being closer to lake port district of Mangochi.
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