Maravi

'Locals can run Zambia Railways'

'Locals can run Zambia Railways'
By Moses Kuwema
Thu 13 Sep. 2012, 10:27 CAT

TRANSPORT expert Henry Chipewo says Zambians are capable of running Zambia Railways Limited efficiently as long as there is no political interference. And Chipewo has advised the government to consider investing massively in rail transport to avoid the huge costs involved in road maintenance.

Meanwhile, Railway Workers Union of Zambia general secretary Elias Mwila says his union will for now watch the happenings at Railway Systems of Zambia silently.

Chipewo, a former Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority managing director said the country had people that were capable of running Zambia Railways Limited and that there was no need to look up to outsiders.

"We can run this rail line and more efficiently for that matter. Zambia Railways failed because of politics. Zambia Railways was over-bloated. Let us run this rail line professionally. We don't need whites to help us run this rail line, we can run it and I want to challenge government that Zambians can actually run this rail more efficiently provided they allow these technocrats to run the rail line. It is just that we don't trust each other as Zambians. Once we start having faith in our own people, and give them targets I can assure you that Zambians can grow this rail line," Chipewo said.

He urged the government to assemble a group of rail experts in Zambia whom he said would be ready to show everyone that they could run Zambia Railways Limited.

And Chipewo said Zambia had lost out since the time that the RSZ took over Zambia Railways.

He said RSZ had killed the training school in Kabwe, resulting in the country not having too many rail experts and train operators.

"The concession agreement was 90 per cent skewed in favour of RSZ. That agreement does not give RSZ any obligation to improve the rail systems…in terms of modernising the equipment, improving internal operations, both freight and passenger. It was more financial than operational. The Zambian people were looking for a rail line that would perform much better than Zambia Railways, that is to improve the infrastructure, the rail truck from what they were like. We were looking forward to a situation where traders could be able to consign their goods to the train as opposed to moving their goods through the road," he said.

Meanwhile, Chipewo said Zambia had the capacity to develop its rail transport which would significantly reduce the rate of accidents in the country, further pointing out that maintenance of railway lines is many times cheaper than maintaining roads.

"…For example, rehabilitating a kilometer of a tarred road costs about K2 billion while a kilometer of a railway line costs slightly over K100 million…," he said.

"And using railway transport can make us to have less accidents in this country. We need to have a mass transit system connecting people from one point to the other. These trains can move masses of people at a cheaper cost," said Chipewo.

"And we have plenty water which can generate electricity that can then power our trains, we can have electric trains linking people throughout the country. This is workable, all we need is a proper transport policy."

And when asked to comment on the government's decision to terminate the concession agreement with the RSZ, Mwila said RWUZ was following things silently.

"For the moment, the best we can do is to follow the issues silently.
We don't want to disturb anything. Our interest is not just a loose comment, we want to see what have we benefited as workers? When we answer all those questions then we say it is good. We cannot jump just because Mr President Michael Sata made the announcement. There are no ingredients in what he said, what is happening on the ground is something else so we will wait and see what is good for the workers," said Mwila.

Labels: HENRY CHIPEWO, ZAMBIA RAILWAYS

posted by MrK @ 8:15 PM