Zimbabwe NRZ: Commissions Refurbished Wagons, Locomotives Under Zimasco PPP

The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has increased its operational capacity following the refurbishment of 100 high-sided wagons and three locomotives under a US$2.8 million Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with ferrochrome producer Zimasco. The refurbished rolling stock was commissioned in Harare on Thursday by Transport Minister, Felix Mhona. Mhona described the partnership as an innovative financing model that revives idle railway assets without placing an immediate burden on the Treasury, while securing a reliable export route for Zimasco's chrome through the ports of Beira and Maputo. "This partnership exemplifies a win-win financial engineering model. By funding the overhaul of idle wagons in exchange for freight charge offsets, Zimasco has secured a reliable supply chain route to international markets," Mhona said. Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn "At the same time, NRZ has expanded its operational capacity without placing an immediate fiscal burden on the treasury." The minister said a functional railway system was essential for Zimbabwe to achieve its goal of becoming an upper-middle-income economy by 2030. He described rail transport as the cheapest and safest mode of moving bulk cargo, adding that the latest investment would help ease logistics bottlenecks, protect rehabilitated roads from damage caused by heavy trucks and improve the competitiveness of Zimbabwean chrome exports. Mhona commended Zimasco for its confidence in NRZ and urged other mining companies, farmers and fuel importers to adopt similar partnership models. "Zimbabwe is open for business. Our doors remain wide open for private participation in locomotives, wagons and infrastructure modernisation," he said. Government, working with the Mutapa Investment Fund, is pursuing larger recapitalisation projects, including track and signalling upgrades, the acquisition of new locomotives through Afreximbank and a resource-backed deal with China Railway International Group. Mhona said US$10 million had been secured for the Chicualacuala-Plumtree and Machipanda-Harare railway lines through tripartite cooperation involving Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana. He added that cooperation with South Africa on the North-South Corridor had also been revived. Read the original article on New Zimbabwe . AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 90 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals , representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica . To address comments or complaints, please Contact us . AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 600 news and information items daily from over 90 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC. Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy . We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.