Nacala railway, also known as Northern Corridor railway and Nacala Corridor railway, is a railway line that operates in northern Mozambique on a 912 kilometres (567 mi) line[1] that runs west from the port city of Nacala, crossing the central region of Malawi, connecting with the coal belt of Moatize, in northwest Mozambique. It is connected to the Dona Ana-Moatize railway branch and the Sena railway (Chipata-Lilongwe-Blantyre-Nhamayabue-Dondo). It also has a 262 kilometres (163 mi) branch line from Cuamba to Lichinga.[2]
The construction of the Nacala Railway started in 1915, as a project to link the port of Lumbo with the Mozambican hinterland and Protectorate of Nyasaland.[4] The first 90 km to Monapo was opened for operation in 1924, but the project declined for lack of resources.[5]
When a building was renovated in the late 1920s, he realized that the port of Lumbo had a number of design weaknesses, deciding that Nacala should be the port terminal on a line. The tracking was changed and a link between Monapo and Nacala was opened.[5]
In 1932, a railroad reached 350 km, already connecting Nacala to Mutivasse and, in 1950, it extended to Cuamba, 538 km from Nacala. Starting from Cuamba, 262 km of lightning were built up to Lichinga.[6]
On May 17, 1968, the government of Malawi signed an agreement with Portugal to open an extension starting in the city of Nkaya, to connect with Cuamba. The Nkaya station thus formed an interconnection between the Sena Railway and the Nacala Railway. The Nacala line is the longest but most direct route, the Malawi connection to the sea, the way the Sena line to the port of Beira has been predetermined, and most of the freight traffic caused has moved to the Nacala. The Nkaya-Cuamba extension was inaugurated by Malawian President Hastings Kamuzu Banda on July 4, 1970, in a joint ceremony with Portuguese authorities in Cuamba, and its operations started on August 3, 1970.[7][8]
The Mozambican government started the recovery of the line in November 2005,[9] within the mega-enterprise "Nacala Logistics Corridor", which guarantees a hyperconnectivity of highways, railways, ports and airports.[3]
In 2010, a multinational mining company Vale managed to sew the formation of the joint venture "Integrated Northern Logistical Corridor Society", for the administration of the railway, having the freedom to build the extension of the Nacala Railway to the coal belt of Benga-Moatize, where the mining company has mineral exploration concessions.[10] The extension departed from the Nkaya interconnection station and continued to Moatize, being completed in 2017.[11] The project includes an export terminal and a coal storage yard at the port of Nacala-a-Velha.[12]
Main railway stations
Nacala railway map (red line); railways with junction (in green); other railway routes (in blue).
The main railway stations of the Nacala railway are:
