Africa – Page 39
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News
Railway stabilisation starts
DR CONGO: A programme to 'stabilise' the operations of national railway SNCC is due to start on June 16, when Belgian concessionaire Vecturis begins a two-year contract to manage the business and put in place measures to prevent further 'technical and operational degradation'. The move follows an international tendering competition ...
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Djibouti-Ethopien concession talks
ETHIOPIA: Chemin de fer Djibouti-Ethopien has begun talks with Kuwait-based Fuad Algarim Group with a view to awarding a 20-year concession to operate the 781 km metre gauge line linking Addis Abeba and the port of Djibouti. A previous concessioning proposal by the governments of Ethiopia and Djibouti attracted nine ...
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NewsNigeria's grand plan back on hold
FOR MANY years we have been tracking plans to develop a standard gauge network in Nigeria. Earlier this year it looked as if progress was imminent, with the signing of an agreement for China Civil Engineering & Construction Co to build a double-track line from Lagos to Abuja and Kano ...
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East African rail master plan
CONSULTANTS have been commissioned by the East African Community to study plans to build up to 15 new lines as part of a railway development master plan. Many of the proposals are extremely ambitious, and here we would single out a line running west from Kasese in Uganda across the ...
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NewsMorocco to order Duplex TGVs
MOROCCO: The dream of high speed trains in North Africa moved a step closer on October 22, when Alstom Transport announced that it had been selected to supply a fleet of 18 TGV Duplex trainsets to Moroccan national railway ONCFM. Subject to final negotiations, the order is ...
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Chinese to plug Ilebo - Kinshasa gap in DR Congo
AGREEMENTS were signed in Kinshasa on September 17 which provide for China to fund a major railway project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The rail element of a US$5bn loan package, signed by Congolese Minister for Public Works & Infrastructure Pierre Lumbi and Chinese Ambassador to the DRC Wu ...
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Ghana revival starts as concessions are signed
RECONSTRUCTION and expansion of the rail network in Ghana is expected to get underway before the end of this year, following the award of two 35-year concessions covering the country's Western and Eastern corridors. Transport Minister Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi pledged that 'we will leave no stone unturned' to revive the rail ...
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No concession at Ethio-Djibouti Railway
MID-2007 was expected to have seen the signing of a 25-year concession for the operation of the 781 km Ethio-Djibouti Railway. But it was not to be. Nine consortia had expressed interest in the concession when bidding began two years ago. Two groups led by Comazar of South Africa and ...
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News
Soda wagons come on stream
SCT EUROPE is currently supplying 272 tailor-made Barber S-2-E three-piece bogies to British wagon manufacturer W H Davis, for use on 32 tank wagons and 104 hopper wagons of 66 tonne gross weight which have been ordered by Magadi Soda Co for use in Kenya (RG 1.07 p10). ...
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Sena reopening
MOZAMBIQUE state railway authority CFM announced last month that it expected services to resume on the southern part of the Sena line ’before March’. After a 20-year hiatus caused by civil war, trains will start to carry limestone over the 90?km section from quarries at Muanza to a cement factory ...
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Reform is not the answer
ZIMBABWE: ’The Zimbabwe railway continues to be critical for the growth of regional and international trade’, reports the World Bank following a recent study of the country’s transport infrastructure. At the centre of international routes linking the DRC and Zambia with Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa, National Railways of Zimbabwe ...
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Namibia completes Northern extension
THOUSANDS OF Namibians gathered at Ondangwa on July 15 when President Hifikepunye Pohamba and Founding Father Dr Sam Mujoma officially opened the town’s new station, marking the completion of Phase 1 of the country’s northern extension railway. The 246·5 km line from Tsumeb has taken four years to build at ...
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East African concessions make progress
AFRICA: This month is due to see the transfer of operations on Tanzania Railways Corp's 2707 km metre-gauge network to Rites under a 25-year concession. The transfer is being partially funded by the World Bank and African Development Bank. Tanzania's Minister for Infrastructure Basil Mramba explained in Dodoma on August ...
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Nigeria concessioning starts
EXPRESSIONS of interest are due by the end of July for two concessions to operate sections of the Nigerian rail network, under a privatisation process that is expected to see preferred bidders announced in February 2007.Nigeria’s Bureau for Public Enterprises has appointed CPCS Transcom as Transaction Advisors. A shortlist of ...
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Rift Valley hold-up
FURTHER delays seem inevitable before the Sheltam-led Rift Valley Railways consortium achieves financial close for its 25-year concession to operate the Ugandan rail network.Following a legal challenge by two former members of the consortium, Judge Egonda Ntende of Kampala Commercial Court ruled last month that 25% of the consortium’s shares ...
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Kenya-Uganda bids in
BIDDING documentation for the 25-year concession to operate the rail networks in Kenya and Uganda was issued on August 30, after the submission deadline was extended at the request of the bidders.Final offers were due by September 30, and the two governments now expect to name the preferred bidder on ...
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Botswana signs resignalling deal
CONTRACTS were signed in Gabarone on August 3 for resignalling of the Botswana Railways network.Ansaldo Signal subsidiary Union Switch & Signal has been selected to provide computer-based Direct Traffic Control to replace the now-obsolete British Radio Electronic Token Block equipment installed in 1989-90. As part of the programme, the number ...
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Zimbabwe split
THIS MONTH is due to see the Zimbabwe government take over responsibility for ownership and financing of rail infrastructure, with the implementation of the Railways Amendment Act 1997.The Act provides for the transfer of NRZ-owned infrastructure and land to the state, leaving National Railways of Zimbabwe to focus on its ...
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NRC shortlist
NIGERIA’s Bureau of Public Enterprises has shortlisted nine consortia to tender for a contract to provide consultancy services for the planned privatisation of Nigerian Railways Corp.Around 20 companies had submitted expressions of interest before the deadline on April 20. Of these, four were disqualified for non-compliance. According to BPE, the ...
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Ban on the Bong line
LIBERIA: Revival of the fortunes of the iron ore market has triggered the reopening of the 78 km line between the mines at Bong and the port of Monrovia in Liberia. The move means the end of a practice that saw the 1435mm gauge line kept in unofficial use since ...