Members of the Government, businesspeople, international partners and experts will work together on the basis for preparing the Master Plan for the Lobito Corridor, also known as the Benguela Railway, during a “workshop” to be held on Thursday. fair.
According to information that JA Online had access to today, the mapping of infrastructure gaps, the design and importance of public-private partnerships along the Lobito Corridor are some topics that will dominate the meeting.
The event is a joint initiative between the Ministries of Planning and Transport and also has a partnership with the World Bank and will take place under the motto: “Diversify more by unlocking the potential of national development”.
The Lobito Corridor concession was handed over to the Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR) consortium and formalized on July 4, 2023, in a ceremony attended by the Presidents of Angola, DRC and Zambia.
Lobito Corridor Managers
This important project by the Angolan Government and international partners is made up of the companies Trafigura (49.5%), Mota-Engil (49.5%) and Vecturis SA (1%), LAR won the international competition on November 4, 2022, to ensure the management of the Lobito Corridor for 30 years.
In this regard, the Lobito Atlantic Railway has the mission of transporting heavy loads and maintaining the infrastructure of the Benguela Railway.
Under the concession contract, the consortium also committed to investing 455 million euros in Angola and another 100 million in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to improve the infrastructure of the Lobito Corridor in terms of capacity. and security, as well as to purchase 35 locomotives and 500 carriages.
The Lobito Railway Corridor extends, in Angola, for almost 1,300 kilometers, passing through the provinces of Benguela, Huambo, Bié and Moxico.
Furthermore, the infrastructure continues in the DRC to Kolwezi, in Zambia, a distance of 400 kilometers