By Margaret Kamba

ZANU PF First Secretary and President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, His excellency President E.D Mnangagwa is in Manica province, Mozambique to witness the commissioning of the refurbished railway line.

The significance of his visit is that of Zimbabwe’s anticipated use of this railway line to transport finished products from this country to the rest of the world through the Beira port. 

With Dinson Iron and Steel plant now 80 percent complete, we can be rest assured that attaining vision 2030 earlier than then will be achieved.

The plant project manager, Cde Wilfred Motsi said the project was now 80 percent complete with everything now almost in place for its full operationalisation early next year.

“I am glad to say that we are now at 80 percent complete. 

“Almost all the components we need are on site, while my team is just putting in place final touches. We had to defer the opening of the plant due to some unforeseen circumstances,” he said.

Cde Motsi said the mining of ore in preparation for steel production has since commenced. 

 “I am happy to announce that we have started mining iron ore, a key ingredient for the production of steel which means once the machines start to run, we will be having the critical raw material,” he said.

The Machipanda railway line was originally built in 1899, a single 317 km track rail link which rises from the sea level at Beira Port to about 300 meters at the border with Zimbabwe. It provides connection to Zimbabwe at Mutare. Between Beira and Machipanda there are 46 stations.

Like the Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority, popularly known as TAZARA, which is a bi-national railway linking the Southern Africa Regional transport network to Eastern Africa's seaport of Dar es Salaam, offering both freight and passenger transportation services between and within Tanzania and Zambia, the Machipanda Railway line provides relief for the landlocked countries such as Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Zambia.