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Tapiwanashe Mangwiro Senior Business Reporter
The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) is on the mend after it revealed that it is ready to transport bulk petroleum gas and gasoline after forming relationships with local industry operators.
Mr Andrew Kunambura, NRZ public relations manager, said that the company’s relationship with ZimGas had paved the ground for the restoration of NRZ’s tankers.
“As an organisation, we have formed Private Public Partnerships with a variety of players in the mining and fuel industries. One of these collaborations involves our work with Zim-Gas. As you are aware, Zim-Gas is a large importer of petroleum gas. They ship a lot of this gas through the ports of Maputo and Beira.
“We agreed that in order to increase capacity, we needed to refurbish our fuel tankers so that they could import more gas. Because we are a bulk goods mover, we needed to expand our equipment capacity,” he said.
Mr Kunambura said the partnership involved the rehabilitation and refurbishment of tankers that would be able to import more gas, adding so far, they had restored eight of the 16 tankers.
NRZ has also entered into another fuel transportation partnership.
“We have also entered into another partnership for the refurbishment of fuel tankers,” he added. This has resulted in the refurbishment of 53 of 100 fuel tankers. We’ve reached 50 percent. The remainder are being renovated, and we have other comparable agreements with mining businesses.”
The Government is convinced that the revitalisation of NRZ is central in ensuring the organisation becomes the dominant logistics player in the region by 2030.
“The Government’s commitment towards revamping NRZ from the highest office is beyond doubt.
“The objectives are to improve the rail infrastructure quality index to 68 percent by 2025 from the current 57 percent and increase freight volumes to 6,7 million tonnes per annum from the current 2,3 million tonnes as well as increase passenger services.”
“The Government is eager to see the success of NRZ and hence our emphasis to make good the NRZ vision: To be the dominant logistic player in the region by 2030,” said Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Mike Madiro.
Partnerships have been identified as a possible recapitalisation approach by the parastatal.
In that regards, there were reports that the NRZ and the Indian Railways Infrastructure Consultancy and Engineering Company, (RITES) Limited signed a contract worth US$81 175 500 for the supply of rolling stock wagons.
The rolling stocks to be provided in the RITES deal are 3 000 horsepower diesel electric locomotives and high sided open wagons.
In a statement in May 2023 RITES said; “The provision of advanced locomotives and wagons is set to revolutionise the country’s rail network, facilitating the efficient and seamless movement of goods and passengers across Zimbabwe.”
However, the feeling by RITES noted that the contract agreements are subject to the approval of funding by the funding agency.
“The successful allocation of funds will pave the way for the commencement of this ambitious project, further reinforcing the partnership between RITES and NRZ,” RITES said in a statement.
NRZ and RITES, have been working with the African Development Bank on an engineering, procurement, construction and funding contract for two years now.
The deal at the time was rumoured to cover the procurement of seven locomotives, 315 wagons, five diesel multiple units including infrastructure rehabilitation.
Online Reporter