Africa-Press – Mozambique. The 317-kilometre-long Machipanda railway line is being sabotaged in Dondo, Sofala province.
Unknown persons are stealing the metal fastening clips attaching the rails to the concrete sleepers, presumably to feed local iron-smelting industries. This could easily lead to the derailment of freight trains.
“A quick count revealed more than 100 fastening clips missing. This is serious: it could cause derailments, which the line here is prone to. I cannot call this theft: this is sabotage,” a CFM spokesperson said.
The Machipanda line has altogether about 1,800,00 fastening clips, TVM reports.
The thefts come at a time when CFM is investing around US$200 million rehabilitating the Machipanda line, with the aim of getting road traffic onto the rail system.
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