Mozambique | Sena railroad reopens to traffic

The Sena Railroad, connecting the coal town of Moatize, in Mozambique’s Tete province to the port of Beira, in Sofala, was reopened to traffic Saturday after four days off due to damage caused by the rains in various parts of the route, according to daily newspaper Notícias. The newspaper said everything began last Wednesday morning as a result of torrential rains in the Lower Zambezi starting on 1 January. Due to strong currents, a considerable part of the ballast was washed away and water spilled over aqueducts and culverts, causing three cuts to the line craters opening up in the track bed. The rail director of Mozambican port and railway company CFM, Boaventura Mahave, said the three cuts that led to the stoppage on the line affected around 350 metres of the track. According to Mahave an average of 25 trains travel along the Sena line every day. Work is underway to expand the railroad’s capacity from 6.5 million to 20 million tons per year, carried out by a consortium of Portuguese companies Mota-Engil and Edivisa, the latter from the Visabeira group, a project with an estimated cost of 163 million euros due to be completed this year.