India’s state-owned rail company has won a US$37.6 million contract to supply Mozambique with 10 new locomotives for the national rail network, according to reports.
Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) will supply the diesel-electric locomotives, after submitting the lowest bid for the contract with Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM), the Mozambican state-owned enterprise that operates ports and railways in the country.
Another bid, to supply CFM with 300 wagons, was not successful. CFM said that the contract had been awarded to another bidder but provided no additional details.
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CFM data shows a sharp uptick in the use of rail transport in 2022, up 81 percent to nearly 5.6 million passengers, a figure largely in line with administration forecasts. They point to the scrapping of Covid-19 prevention measures and investment to strengthen transport capacity in south and central Mozambique as driving the increase.
Cargo transport on the rail network in 2022 rose to 24.6 million gross tons, a 30 percent increase year-on-year. Port terminals under CFM saw a much smaller bump, up around 6 percent to 13.21 million tons.
RITES currently operates in more than 50 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, South America and the Middle East.
