Maputo, May 6, 2025 (Lusa) - The Mozambican government is acquiring new wagons and passenger carriages to boost rail transport in the country, forecasting a 26.6% growth in traffic this year, according to data compiled on Tuesday by Lusa from the state budget proposal.
According to the draft Economic and Social Plan and State Budget (PESOE) 2025, which is being analysed by specialised committees of parliament in Maputo, the forecast growth in traffic is justified "by the increase in passenger flow, linked to investments made in the acquisition of more than 750 wagons".
This growth is also justified "by the expected increase in freight traffic in 2025, with the full operation of the rehabilitated and expanded railway lines of Ressano Garcia (double track), Matola Gare-Moamba and Machipanda, which will allow connections between the southern and central ports, thus ensuring greater capacity and response to the demand for rail freight transport," according to the government document.
The Mozambican government announced at the end of April that it intends to invest more than €190 million by 2030 in doubling railway lines and acquiring carriages, locomotives and wagons to strengthen passenger and freight transport capacity.
"In the southern and central railway system, under the direct management of the company Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Mozambique (CFM), we plan to invest around 14 billion meticais [€193.3 million] in the period 2025-2030 in the implementation of strategic projects," said Transport and Logistics Minister João Matlombe on 26 April when inaugurating three new locomotives in Maputo.
The minister said that the government wants to invest the money in completing the duplication of the remaining 25 kilometres of the Ressano Garcia railway line in Maputo, which links Mozambique and South Africa, and also in the acquisition of more than 30 carriages to increase passenger capacity.
For the same amount, the Mozambican government intends to acquire at least 250 wagons by 2030 to meet the growing demand for mineral transport and to purchase at least 15 locomotives.
The Minister of Transport and Logistics said that the three new locomotives inaugurated cost 422.4 million meticais (€5.8 million) and are intended to strengthen passenger rail transport capacity in the Greater Maputo region, recognising their impact on community development.
The operating results of the state-owned Porto e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) rose 55% in 2024 to almost 2.52 billion meticais (€34.7 million), and more than seven million passengers were transported, the management announced.
According to information from the chairman of the board of directors of CFM, Agostinho Langa, to which Lusa had access on 14 April, this performance contrasts with the operating result of 1.63 billion meticais (€22.5 million) in 2023, a balance that is still provisional but already considered positive, despite the constraints in 2024, namely the impacts of several months of post-election social unrest.
CFM operates the Ressano Garcia, Limpopo and Goba railway lines, the Beira Railway System, which includes the Sena line, Machipanda and the Marromeu branch line, the section common to the three lines of the southern network and the Maputo shunting area, the southern and central general workshops and the Matola Aluminium Terminal.
It also operates fuel terminals in all national ports, grain and coal terminals in the port of Maputo, and the ports of Quelimane, Nacala and Pemba.
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