Mozambique and India are on the verge of signing a new railway transport agreement, following a visit to Maputo by Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister.
According to news outlet Club of Mozambique, Jaishankar visited the headquarters of port and rail company CFM, where he held a meeting with Mateus Magala, Mozambique’s minister for transport.
“India is prepared for several lines of development cooperation with Mozambique”, Jaishankar said. “The railways are a component, but there is also the component of water resources, and the building of roads and bridges”.
Magala told reporters that he thought a rail agreement could “meet our needs to link our country from north to south”.
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India has offered Mozambique railways ten locomotives and 90 passenger carriages.
While in Maputo, Jaishankar also held talks with President Filipe Nyusi and discussed potential cooperation in areas such as trade, infrastructure, energy and defence.
Mozambique is racing to upgrade its transport assets, much of which were damaged by Cyclone Freddy. The World Bank is financing repairs to the country’s main north-south roadway, the 2,600-kilometre National Road 1.
Meanwhile, flag carrier Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique has been handed over to new management in a bid to rein in its US$300 million debt.
