![Mind the gap as passengers boarding CEAR rail coaches]()
Central East African Railways (CEAR) has disclosed it lost about 2 100 000 United States dollars due to the suspension of its operations for six months following floods that hit the country earlier this year.
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![Mind the gap as passengers boarding CEAR rail coaches]()
Mind the gap as passengers boarding CEAR rail coaches[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_100339" align="alignright" width="600"]
![On board CEAR new wagons]()
On board CEAR new wagons[/caption]
Devastating floods hit Malawi in January this year, and according to statistics from the government of Malawi and UN’s children agency, Unicef, over 230 000 people were displaced with about 64 000 hectares of land damaged.
Hendry Chimwaza, CEAR managing director, said Thursday that the floods – which spanned over a period of over four months – was a “punch” in their stomach.
He said that the “most affected route was the Limbe to Nayuchi to Nacara railway line,” adding that the repercussions were “loss of billions of kwacha.”
But Chimwaza was quick to register that much as the deplorable loss was registered, the company equally registered a number of successes in 2015.
He said, for example, CEAR made “significant strides in the construction of the Limbe-Mkaya railway line.”
The project, estimated at a cost of K20 billion, will “greatly” improve the services CEAR offers, he said.
Also, Chimwaza said, CEAR had purchased additional locomotives and passenger coaches which were going to be fully operational in the year 2016.
He said the locomotives some of which will be strategically placed on the Kanengo-Limbe route, would up the number of cargo CEAR transports per year from 400 000 to 600 000 tones.
CEAR is a consortium formed in 199, led by the Railroad Development Corporation, which won the right to operate the Malawi Railways network.
The company was sold in September 2008 to INSITEC, an investment group based in Mozambique.
Mind the gap as passengers boarding CEAR rail coaches[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_100339" align="alignright" width="600"]
On board CEAR new wagons[/caption]
Devastating floods hit Malawi in January this year, and according to statistics from the government of Malawi and UN’s children agency, Unicef, over 230 000 people were displaced with about 64 000 hectares of land damaged.
Hendry Chimwaza, CEAR managing director, said Thursday that the floods – which spanned over a period of over four months – was a “punch” in their stomach.
He said that the “most affected route was the Limbe to Nayuchi to Nacara railway line,” adding that the repercussions were “loss of billions of kwacha.”
But Chimwaza was quick to register that much as the deplorable loss was registered, the company equally registered a number of successes in 2015.
He said, for example, CEAR made “significant strides in the construction of the Limbe-Mkaya railway line.”
The project, estimated at a cost of K20 billion, will “greatly” improve the services CEAR offers, he said.
Also, Chimwaza said, CEAR had purchased additional locomotives and passenger coaches which were going to be fully operational in the year 2016.
He said the locomotives some of which will be strategically placed on the Kanengo-Limbe route, would up the number of cargo CEAR transports per year from 400 000 to 600 000 tones.
CEAR is a consortium formed in 199, led by the Railroad Development Corporation, which won the right to operate the Malawi Railways network.
The company was sold in September 2008 to INSITEC, an investment group based in Mozambique.