NRZ train drivers using cellphones to communicate with each other because signaling equipment is not working

National Railways of Zimbabwe train drivers are using their cellphones to communicate with each to decide whether to proceed or slow down to avoid collisions because the parastatal’s signaling equipment is not working, a Member of Parliament said last week.

Bikita West legislator Munyaradzi Kereke said there was urgent need to restore the viability of the NRZ if Zimbabwe wanted to improve the export of bulk material like chrome ore.

“When you look at the situation at the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) and the road haulage capacity of the country, you can only anticipate a binding constraint which is likely to frustrate our efforts to export chrome,” he said in his contribution to the presidential speech for the official opening of Parliament.

“So through the relevant ministries and the oversight role of Parliament, we would urge that urgent attention be placed to restoring some modicum of viability on NRZ to be able to support the intended projects in mining.

“NRZ at the moment, we were briefed yesterday, does not have adequate wagons, locomotive heads to pull the rolling stock and the mere signaling equipment where now the train drivers have to use cellphones to say, where are you now, do I slow down -so that they avoid collision.

“We cannot allow our institutions to be run the way they are being run at the moment if we are to recover as an economy,” he said.

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