BBR (Pvt) Ltd set to win Zambian contract Financial Gazette (Zimb) Date posted:Thu 13-Feb-2003 Date published:Thu 13-Feb-2003
Back to previous page		The Zambia project involved reconstructing the railway line starting from the border town of Livingstone near the Victoria Falls, to the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Staff Reporter The Beitbridge-Bulawayo Railway (BBR) Private Limited is this week expected to be awarded a multi-million dollar contract to reconstruct Zambia’s dilapidated railway network, according to company officials. A company spokesman, who declined to be named, said BBR chief executive Etan Dvir and other senior executives of the railway firm were in the Zambian capital Lusaka early this week to meet government officials over the deal. Executives of the Zimbabwean firm were also expected to hold meetings with other Zambian railway industry stakeholders to finalise the agreement, which is said to be worth about US$20 million. "The chief (Dvir) is in Zambia to conclude the whole deal," the BBR official told the Financial Gazette. "He is going there to put pen to paper." "This is a big job for the company and we are ready and itching to take-up the challenge. We have been on the site of the project and I tell you, it’s a huge challenge," he added. Dvir, whose firm built the Beitbridge-Bulawayo railway line in 1995, confirmed in a brief telephone conversation that his company was on the verge of clinching the contract, but said he could only provide further details on the deal later this week. The BBR chief executive said there were several issues that had to be ironed out before the deal could be finalised. But railway industry executives said the Zambian authorities had been impressed by several projects undertaken by BBR in the last few years, especially the construction of the Beitbridge-Bulawayo railway line and the new Limpopo toll bridge at the border town of Beitbridge. They said the Zambia project involved reconstructing the railway line starting from the border town of Livingstone near the Victoria Falls, to the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). "The BBR is going to uproot the current obsolete railway line from Livingstone up to the border with the DRC," a rail industry executive told the Financial Gazette. "Company executives have toured the project site and they feel the job can be done. These are the jobs that Dvir is good at. In Zimbabwe, he was not given a chance. The firm wanted to revamp the NRZ (National Railways of Zimbabwe) at one time and tendered for a number of jobs such as the construction of the Harare-Chitungwiza railway line, but the project was taken away from the firm in unclear circumstances." Sources said the Zambian Railway Workers’ Union had also made no objection to BBR being awarded the Zambian project, which will resuscitating the country’s old railway network and other infrastructure along the route from Livingstone to the border with the DRC. Six Zambian workers’ representatives are said to have visited Bulawayo last week to familiarize themselves with BBR’s operations. Meanwhile, NRZ sources said the government should also seriously consider approaching BBR to revamp Zimbabwe’s dilapidated railway network and infrastructure, especially the signaling system that is blamed for a train crash two weeks ago that killed 50 people and left 64 others seriously injured.