Thyolo Chiefs commend Chakwera for Limbe-Sandama Railway Rehabilitation Project

Chiefs in the district of Thyolo have heaped their praise on the President Chakwera and his administration for rehabilitating the Limbe-Sandama Railway Project which commenced in 2017.

Traditional Authority Nanseta who is leading the team said they are excited the Chakwera-led Tonse Alliance is working hard to fast-track the completion of the project.

Chief Nanseta said, “This Project will ease our transportation and businesses. It was a vision of the former leaders to ensure Railway network.

“We are happy for the continuation of the project which we believe once completed, it will help a lot of people here which would also enable the country to develop.

“It will also offer alternative transportation to people along the line.”

The Railway has been dormant since 2015 due to heavy flooding that washed away part of it.

The project started in 2017 and it is estimated to cost around K10.4 billion.

The Ministry of Transport and Public Works singled covid 19 restrictions and recent Cyclones as factors contributed to the delays to rehabilitate the Railways.

Ministry’s Spokesperson, Maganizo Liwewe told The Malawi Guardian on Monday that due to restrictions pit in place due to the coming of Covid 19, the contracted Company, Central East African Railway (CEAR) downsided its work before Cyclones affected access to the sites.

However, Liwewe added that the government is engaging the Company on the new time frame for the completion of a 72 kilometer Railway Section.

He said, “Two things have affected the progress of the project, it was Covid 19 because they started before the pandemic hit us. So with it,(Covid 19), government issued guidelines at construction site and those guidelines were limitations that meant that the contractor had to reduce the number of workers which inturn affected the implementation progress.

“But more recently, Cyclones Ana and Gombwe also affected the access to the construction site and the contractor was not able to transfer the construction materials to the site.”

Liwewe has assured people in Thyolo that the project will be finished in time as the contractor had already started deploying equipment.

The Tonse Alliance government is also reconstructing and rehabilitating Marka-Bangula Railway Project in Nsanje as one way of boosting country’s business network.