Locomotives will boost capacity to deliver aid, WFP

The World Food Programme's (WFP) emergency operation in Malawi has been boosted by the arrival of four locomotives that will increase the amount of relief food that can be transported to the landlocked country.

WFP said in a statement that the arrival by ship on Tuesday of the four locomotives at the port of Nacala, in Mozambique, was the first step in the WFP's special operation to rehabilitate the Nacala railway line, the only direct rail link between Mozambique and Malawi.

"WFP decided to improve the track in order to speed up the transport of relief food to Malawi, where 3.3 million people will need food aid in the coming months. Currently the line's capacity is limited by a shortage of locomotives and rolling stock and by the terrible state of one large section of the track," WFP said.

The four locomotives would be running by the beginning of next week. "Another four locomotives and 90 extra wagons will eventually be added to the railway's rolling stock, which will dramatically increase the freight-carrying capacity of the line," the agency noted.

WFP also planned to repair a 77-km stretch of track close to the Malawian border. Two engineers have arrived in Mozambique and the repairs were expected to start in early January.

"The operation has been funded by donations from Britain (US $6.4 million) and Canada (US $256,410). The British money will also be used to improve infrastructure within Malawi by rebuilding roads and prepositioning Bailey bridges ahead of the rainy season," WFP added.

Rehabilitating the railway was crucial to WFP operations in Malawi - which required around 35,000 mt of food aid a month up until March 2003 - because the current transport routes from the ports of Beira and Dar es Salaam were "far more time-consuming and expensive".