BR buys locomotives from USA

Botswana Railways will purchase eight locomotives in 2017 from a world first class company in the United States, says chief executive officer Dominic Ntwaagae.

The addition of new trains is timely as another eight locomotives are currently idling at the BR headquarters in Mahalapye due to lack of maintenance. However Ntwaagae insists that they are fixing these idle locomotives. He said six have been outsourced to regional powerhouse Transnet and Grindrod in South Africa for maintenance while the remaining two are being repaired in-house.

He said the plan is to have them back in full operation in the next two years. Over a year ago, the BR managed to procure 562 specialised wagons from South Africa’s Transnet Engineering Company to support the country’s blossoming exports of coal and other commodities. Ntwaagae said however that the parastatal’s major focus is the much-anticipated passenger train which is expected to arrive in Botswana early March and start operations at the end of the same month.

Six major train stations in Lobatse, Gaborone, Mahalapye, Palapye, Serule and Francistown are currently undergoing refurbishments to prepare for the project take-off at a cost of P20 million. The delayed return of the blue train is attributed to the initial tendering process, which was cancelled due to non-compliance by bidders.

The train was scheduled to hit the rails by end of December last year and was later postponed to March. At least R280million was spent on coaches from Transnet. Botswana Railways wants to improve the coal mining sector in the country by ensuring sufficient and efficient delivery by positioning itself as the preferred mode of transport for bulk commodities.

Currently the organisation is moving about two million tonnes per annum and it has set itself a target to freight of over four million tonnes.