Malawi intensifies North-bound rail plans

Malawi has intensified plans to build a North-bound railway linking the country to the Tanzania-Zambia network, in a bid to cut transport costs which account for an estimated 60 percent of import and export expenses.

The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority, popularly known as Tazara, is a bi-national railway linking the landlocked Zambia to Tanzania’s Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam. It currently offers both cargo and passenger transportation services between and within the two countries.

Malawi does not have a railway network beyond Lilongwe as infrastructure is restricted between Blantyre and Lilongwe as well as Balaka and Nayuchi in Machinga.

The rail link to the southern tip in Nsanje that previously connected the country to Mozambique and Zimbabwe is in a dilapidated state, a situation compounded by the wash-away at Mtayamoyo Bridge in Nsanje in 1999.

In his remarks during the opening of a two-day Central Corridor National Stakeholders Dissemination Workshop yesterday, Secretary for Transport and Public Works Bright Kumwembe said the railway was a flagship project under the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency.

“This project will be done in phases. Currently, we are working on a feasibility study which is being assisted by the corridor itself. The African Development Bank [AfDB] has actually vouched that they are going to provide resources for that feasibility study,” he said.

Kumwembe: It will

be done in phases.

| Cynthia Binali

Kumwembe said transport costs were a “killer issue” for Malawi’s economy with consumers bearing the full burden of inefficiencies estimated to account for 60 percent of local costs.

“We are hovering about 50, 60 percent of costs and that is felt by the buyer or the consumer in the country because all those costs are passed on to the consumer,” he said.

Malawi joined the Central Corridor in December 2023, becoming the sixth member State with access to the Port of Dar es Salaam.

While acknowledging existing routes through Nacala and the disconnected Beira, Kumwembe said the Central Corridor was important for diversification.

“Considering that Dar es Salaam is a port that takes close to 70 percent of our cargo, it was very important that we should join our friends to make sure we can be part of the corridor,” he said.

The Tazara connection would complement ongoing railway rehabilitation work in the South where the 72-kilometre Marka-Bangula line in Nsanje has faced repeated delays since construction began in May 2022.

The project, awarded to China Railway 20th Bureau Group (CR20) at K68 billion, has missed two deadlines of November 2023 and April 2024 due to contractor changes, cyclones and the kwacha devaluation. The cost is now projected at over K100 billion.

Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry economic analyst Chancey Mkandawire said the corridor was important for diversifying trade routes.

“Much as most of our goods might pass through Nacala as well as Beira, but this also is very important to the businesses because now it gives the diversity routes,” he said.

The cost of living crisis has intensified pressure on transport reform, with the basic needs basket for an average urban family reaching K1 million per month.

Fuel prices have surged more than 120 percent since October 2024, when petrol stood at K2 530 per litre.

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