Railway Systems of Zambia Limited (RSZ) was a private company incorporated and registered in

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

which operates

Zambia Railways Zambia Railways (ZR) is the national railway company of Zambia and one of the two major railway organisations in Zambia. The other system is the binational TAZARA Railway (TAZARA) that interconnects with the ZR at Kapiri Mposhi and provides a li ...

. It is a subsidiary of NLPI Ltd, an investment holding company, which main investment is focus on infrastructure-related projects within the continent of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. The shareholders of NLPI are Nedbank Ltd,

Old Mutual Old Mutual (officially Old Mutual Limited) is a South African investment, savings, insurance, and banking group, operating across Africa. It is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, the Namibian Stock Exchan ...

and

Sanlam Sanlam Limited is a South African financial services group headquartered in Bellville, Western Cape, South Africa. Sanlam is one of the largest insurance companies in Africa. It is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Namibian Stock ...

, all major

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

financial institution A financial institution, sometimes called a banking institution, is a business entity that provides service as an intermediary for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial ins ...

s, together with New Limpopo Bridge Projects Limited (NLP).

Zambia railways concession

The NLPI Consortium participated in a tender, administered by the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

, in respect of the

Concession, in order to ensure a "Through Traffic" pre-arrangement along the Corridor from

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

Lusaka Lusaka ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was abo ...

and beyond. The Consortium was declared the winner with the signing of the Freight Concession Agreement on 14 February 2003, by the Minister of Finance and National Planning of the Republic of Zambia, as well as representatives of the NLPI Consortium. The Consortium made a provision of US$40 million for the rehabilitation of Zambia Railways. The World Bank funded an additional investment of approximately US$30 million to finance Zambia Railways staff retrenchment packages, locomotive rehabilitation and other related projects. Zambia Railways, which comprises over 900 kilometres of mainline railways and 300 kilometres of branch line railway, is one of the largest rail networks within the region. The Zambia Concession, which covered the entire network from the

Sakania Sakania is a town in Haut-Katanga Province, in the Congo Pedicle, in the far south of the Democratic Republic of Congo, near the border with Zambia. It is located at an elevation of 1278m asl, therefore it has a cool climate. Between 1935 and 1939 ...

Border to

Victoria Falls Victoria Falls (Lozi language, Lozi: ''Mosi-oa-Tunya'', "Thundering Smoke/Smoke that Rises"; Tonga language (Zambia and Zimbabwe), Tonga: ''Shungu Namutitima'', "Boiling Water") is a waterfall on the Zambezi River, located on the border betwe ...

, including the

Copperbelt The Copperbelt () is a natural region in Central Africa which sits on the border region between northern Zambia and the south eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. It is known for copper mining and is the second largest global reserve of copper, ...

and other branch lines, not only constituted one of the largest ever acquisitions in Zambia's history, but was also unique, as it was Zambia's first railway concession. The Government of the Republic of Zambia terminated the concession contract on 11 September 2012, but RSZ disputed the grounds for termination.

References

External links

Company website
{dead link, date=July 2013 Railway companies of Zambia 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in Zambia Companies with year of establishment missing it:Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway fi:Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway

Zambia railways concession

See also

References

External links