Zambia Railways Limited says it has invested about fifteen million United States dollars in order to enhance its track safety record.
Company board Chairperson Lubinda Linyama says Zambia Railways has prioritized track safety for its locomotives through the digitization program that it has embarked on.
Mr Linyama says derailment of locomotives was the biggest challenge that the company faced in the past.
Speaking when he addressed delegates at the South African Reward Association (SARA) Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Mr. Linyama said his company has paid about 15 million United States dollars to procure state of the art signal and communication equipment.
He said the improved signaling and communication system would invariably improve safety on the tracks and reduce derailments of locomotives.
Mr Linyama said that lack of modern signaling and communication equipment has negatively affected operations of the railway company due to delayed delivery of goods.
He appealed to financing institutions and suppliers of signaling equipment to consider coming up with an integrated system that dealt with safety, communication and state of the art clearing systems in order to help improve the performance of the rail transport not only in Zambia.
Mr Linyama said,real time communication technology was key to the success of the rail sector in the SADC region which was facing a lot of challenges.
This is contained in a statement by Naomi Nyawali First Secretary Press and Public Relations, Zambia’s High Commission, South Africa.
