Published: 16 January 2018

Transport and Infrastructural Development minister Joram Gumbo has said the government is reviving plans to construct the Lions Den-Kafue, Zambia, railway line, which was mooted in 1980.

Gumbo laid out his plans to revive railway transportation during his Mashonaland West provincial tour in Chinhoyi last week.
He has already toured seven provinces this year.

"We are not forgetting you in terms of a railway line. We have a plan for a railway line from Lions Den passing through Kariba to Kafue in Zambia," he said.

He indicated that plans are at an advanced stage, saying "just wait and see in the next 100 days, you shall witness some serious activities along our railway line".

Pressed further on where the government would get the resources to construct a new railway line considering the prevailing economic constraints, Gumbo said the project would get some investors once a feasibility study and projected budget are worked out.

"We don't have money at the moment, but we are sure that once a feasibility study is done and a projected budget is worked out, the document will be marketable" he said.

Another proposal which has never been acted on is the Chitungwiza-Harare railway line that has been on the drawing board since 1987.

Tenders were called for the construction of an electrified 22km line in 1995 with a 60 000-passenger capacity, but the project stalled as the economy took a nosedive.
- the herald

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