Northern Development Corridor

Corredor de Desenvolvimento do Norte (CDN; English translation Northern Development Corridor) is a railroad that operates in northern Mozambique on a 611 kilometres (380 mi) line that runs west from the port city of Nacala to the border with Malawi at Nayuci, and a 262 kilometres (163 mi) branch line from Cuamba to Lichinga.[1]

It was formed in 1997 as a consortium between state owned Mozambique Ports and Railways (CFM) and a private joint venture, the Sociedade de Desenvolvimento do Corredor de Nacala (SDCN), composed of American rail operator Railroad Development Corporation (RDC), mining company Edlow Resources, and various Mozambican interests.[1] The company is structured so CFM controls 49% and SDCN 51%.[2] It was founded in response to the Mozambican government's request for private operators to take control of the 1970s-built state owned railroad, though negotiations took almost a decade and control was not handed over to CDN until January 2005, at which time the company began rehabilitation of the west end of the rail line from Cuamba to the Malawi border and port improvements at Nacala.[3] RDC had in the interim formed Central East African Railways (CEAR) in Malawi, with the goal of operating a single rail line from Mozambique west through Malawi and into Zambia.[3] In 2008, RDC sold its stake in both CEAR and CDN.[4]

In 2009, Mozambique received a US$500 million investment from Denmark, the Netherlands, and the European Union to develop coal fields around Moatize in western Mozambique, with the majority of the money earmarked for improving CDN trackage and constructing a new line through Malawi directly to Mozambican mines.[5] In late 2010, Brazilian mining conglomerate Vale purchased a 51% stake of SDCN, giving it a majority share of both CDN and CEAR, which had by then come under SDCN control as well.[2] In 2012, Vale initiated a new joint venture with CFM, the Nacala Logistics Corridor, to serve the Moatize coal mines—as part of the project, most of CDN line east of Malawi to Nacala was rebuilt to handle heavy coal traffic.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 "A luta continua!". Railway Gazette. 1 June 2004. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Mining drives African rail plans". Railway Gazette. 1 November 2010. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  3. 1 2 "Nacala concession completed". Railway Gazette. 1 February 2005. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  4. ↑ "Race to the coal". Railway Gazette. 1 September 2008. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  5. ↑ "Moatize coal link funded". Railway Gazette. 12 October 2009. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  6. ↑ "Vale starts work on Nacala corridor". Railway Gazette. 10 December 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.