Africa-Press – Mozambique. Venâncio Mondlane, the independent candidate in Mozambique’s presidential election scheduled for 9 October, has promised that, if elected, he will introduce high speed trains between Maputo and the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
The main flaw in this plan is that there is no railway between southern and northern Mozambique. The existing rail corridors, dating from the colonial period, all run from the coast to the countries of the interior (South Africa, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Malawi).
The Mozambican government has repeatedly proposed that a north-south railway should be built, but nobody is queuing up to invest in such a project.
In the current election campaign, the main opposition party, Renamo was the first to revive the idea.
Speaking last week at an election rally in Marrupa, in the northern province of Niassa, the Renamo leader and presidential candidate, Ossufo Momade, said that such a new line would relieve the pressure on the country’s main north-south highway (EN1).
“We shall build a new railway to end congestion on EN1 and to guarantee security and better circulation of people and goods. I shall do this as soon as I am elected to the Presidency”, he promised.
Now Mondlane has gone one better. Speaking on Wednesday in the Niassa provincial capital, Lichinga, he promised high speed electric trains between Maputo and the far north of the country.
He believed that such a high speed rail service, which he calls “Moz Express”, would bring the time taken to travel between Maputo and Cabo Delgado province down to “between three and four hours”.
The distance between Maputo and the Cabo Delgado provincial capital, Pemba, as the crow flies, is 1,666 kilometres. A flight between Maputo and Pemba takes about two and a half hours. So Mondlane is proposing a rail service which will only be slightly slower than an aircraft.
The electric trains he proposes would travel at an average of 418 kilometres an hour. This would be faster than the high speed trains in service in China and Japan.
Mondlane has not put a price tag on this project, nor has he suggested how it might be financed.
Mondlane also claimed that a government he heads will end within a year the wave of kidnappings that has been tormenting Mozambican business people since 2011.
He said that, under his guidance, the police will use modern technologies in coordination with other countries, including Interpol. And within a year, he insisted, there will be no more kidnappings.
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