Mining & Trade News

The Malawi Government says it is keen to revive rail transport as one of the main transport modes for the country.

Spokesperson for Ministry of Transport and Public Works Andrew Mthiko says currently the Government is working closely with the concessionaire Central East African Railways on the rehabilitation of railway transport facilities along the Nacala Corridor including train stations at Nkaya, Balaka, and Mchinji.

“I can also assure Malawians that the idle Limbe-Marka railway line will start functioning soon since rehabilitation and reconstruction works are underway between Limbe in Blantyre and Marka in Nsanje,” Mthiko said.

Malawi has a multi-modal transportation system comprising of road, rail, air and inland water transport. Most of the key infrastructure for the road, rail and inland water transport modes forms part of one or more of the international corridors used for the transportation of international freight including Nacala, Beira, Durban and Dar es Salaam. 

The national rail network covers central and southern parts of the country including the newly built line Nkaya to Kachaso (west) which is 136.5 kilometres long.

The other rail lines include Nkaya to Nayuchi which is a 99km stretch to the Eastern border with Mozambique, Nkaya to Limbe to Makhanga (South) which is 297 km, and Nkaya to Mchinji or Chipata (North and northwest).

The entire route is around 400km which comprises of 12km section between Chipata and Mchinji; 110km between Mchinji and Kanengo; 105.5km between Kanengo and Salima; and 172km section between Salima and Nkaya. The line terminates around 389km from the Tazara line and around 150 km from the Petauke mine in Zambia. The line loading capacity is 18 tonnes between Chipata and Salima, and 15 tonnes per axle between Salima and Nkaya.

Malawi mainly uses road transport which is more expensive that rail and water transport.

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