These are reconditioned locomotives that CFM-Sul has acquired under a long lease system, for which the company will be paying 2.4 million US dollars a year for the next three years.
Aboobacar Mussa, responsible for the project, cited in Friday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", said it was decided to lease reconditioned locomotives, because purchasing new ones would be prohibitively expensive.
Mussa said that each new locomotive would cost about five million dollars, while all 10 Indican locomotives will cost just 7.2 million dollars for three years.
"Even South Africa, a country that is more developed than Mozambique, acquires reconditioned locomotives", he added.
"These are locomotives obtained from India, a country with an acknowledged tradition for making and reconditioning railway equipment. They are very good', Mussa said.
The locomotives, he stressed, would make it possible for CFM to meet its commitments, particularly in freight transport along the Maputo-South Africa railway.
In addition to the locomotives in working order, CFM-Sul is also working to rehabilitate another 45, on which it has invested about 31 million US dollars.
SOURCE: AIM
