📋 Tender Overview
Three thousand freight and passenger trains have been operated by the concessionaire of the Lobito Corridor since the start of operations last January, according to the executive president of Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR) and the Mota-Engil Angola Group, Francisco França.
There are 2,600 passenger trains and 400 cargo trains, according to Jornal de Angola, in its edition this Monday (21).
According to the person in charge, the effectiveness of operations was consolidated with the use of electronic signaling and line management software.
The manager, who was speaking virtually during a round table at the "Sika Summit Angola 2024", said that since the signing of the concession contract, in November 2022, the consortium - made up of the companies LAR, Transfigura and Mota-Engil, carried out a series of investigations, preparatory work to verify the line, culminating in the geometric and geotechnical survey in order to prepare in detail the necessary investment for the aforementioned asset.
Currently, maintenance work is underway on the line, consisting of the installation of ballasts, leveling and geometric realignment of the line, carried out by Mota-Engil, which assumes the role of contractor in the 30-year contract.
At the same time, a major investment is underway to improve the line itself, which consists of welding the rails, replacing five bridges, repairing and equipping the workshops, as well as improvements to the buildings at the 70 stations.
"We used state-of-the-art equipment that is already in Angola. The physical signaling system was not working because much of the equipment was stolen or vandalized, so today the line is operated through navigable communication systems such as VHS radios and telephones," he said.
He added that it is a virtual system widely used around the world, which makes it possible to fill this gap, that is, the locomotives themselves are equipped with technology that emits signals and "we manage the railway line”.
He announced that Lobito Atlantic Railway recently launched an international public tender in which 22 companies interested in providing this service supported by satellite and existing fiber optic networks in Angola are participating, at a time when it is installing solar panels and other equipment throughout the stations, in order to supply the telecommunications repeater signals with electrical energy.
Francisco França spoke, on the other hand, about the transfer of State assets and around 500 workers to the concessionaire, stressing that this constitutes one of the most important processes that preceded the start of operations.
He explained that the company's workforce has 800 workers, of which 408 come from Benguela Railways and 128 from the Port of Lobito.
The Lobito Corridor is a route for people and goods, consisting of road and rail infrastructure, which crosses Angola from Lobito to Luau, passing through Kolwesi and Lumbumbashi, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), enters Zambia through Chingola and ends in Ndola, where there are rail connections to ports in the Indian Ocean, Dar es Salam (Tanzania), Beira (Mozambique) and Durban (South Africa).
The concession contract, with a duration of 30 years and the possibility of extending for another 20, provides for the construction and operation of two goods terminals to support railway services, one in Lobito and the other in Luau, and the management of the mineral port on the east bank of Lobito Bay.
