Mozambique Runs First Train On The Malawi Line

By Jorge Joaquim Mozambique’s state ports and rail company CFM successfully ran the first official train on the rehabilitated Malawi line, transporting cement from the port of Beira to the Chinese company CR20, which is rebuilding the line on the Malawi side. On the Mozambican side, the 44km works have already been completed on schedule, and CFM invested $30m of its own funds. On the Malawian side, materials are being mobilised, and earth moving is going on. The execution of this project, in response to the logistics challenges of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), follows a meeting between the presidents of Mozambique and Malawi, held in Songo, Tete, in late 2020. The reopening of the line will initially allow the transit of commercial cargo trains from the Port of Beira to neighbouring Malawi. Passenger trains, a CFM corporate social responsibility goal, will follow. The line from the Dona Ana bridge, in Mutarara in Sofala, to the border at Vila Nova has been paralysed since September 1986 following the Mozambican civil war, which ended in October 1992.