Africa-Press – Angola. The main weaknesses of the environmental impact along the Lobito Corridor were reviewed, this Thursday, in the municipality of Catumbela (Benguela), in a meeting that brought together the Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium and the Instituto Superior Politécnico Católico de Benguela.
According to the event coordinator, environmental engineer Isaac Sassoma, the Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium, which operates the Benguela Railway, within the scope of the Corridor, was called upon to explain the survey carried out, as the project has not yet is in the public domain.
“We want to better understand the mitigating measures to know if the project is in fact viable”, he suggested.
Isaac Sassoma recalled that ISPOCAB held a conference on the subject (environmental impact) on the Lobito Corridor, in 2019, and drew some lessons about the weaknesses along the line.
He gave the example of provinces such as Bié and Moxico, where several train derailments were recorded due to erosion processes.
“The line suffers some problems from an environmental point of view because of the type of soil that predominates there”, he maintained.
According to the expert, the mitigating measures in that area must be stronger in order to give consistency to the line.
The ISPOCAB professor also announced that the institution is forming a permanent partnership with the LAR consortium, due to the importance of the Lobito Corridor for the development of Angola and the region.
In turn, the consortium’s environmental director, Nádia Lourenço, stated that there are still some environmental liabilities to be corrected.
“We need to do some research on carbon emissions, take into account the biodiversity of animals and the impact that the frequency of trains will have along the railway line”, he stated.
He added that LAR will rehabilitate the 1,344 kilometers of railway line, which connects the provinces of Benguela, Huambo, Bié and Moxico.
He made it known that the process of recruiting staff for the consortium has already started some time ago and the priority falls on former Porto and CFB workers.
“We have a projection for twelve hundred jobs,” he stated.
The Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium is made up of three companies, namely the Swiss Trafigura, the Belgian Vecturis and the Portuguese Mota-Engil. He won the international competition to explore the Lobito Corridor on September 4, 2021.
The concession of railway and support logistics services for the Lobito Corridor was signed on April 4, 2023.
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