RAILWAYS II

closed

The main components of the Second Railway Project are as follows: (a) ATC Headquarters: provision of technical assistance and improvement of training facilities and program (US$5.5 million); (b) Pointe Noire Port: provision of additional stacking areas for timber-handling, construction of new manganese and general cargo berths, and dredging (US$12.8 million); (c) river services: procurement of mechanical handling equipment and additional floating craft, expansion of Brazzaville workshops, and deepening of river channels (US$21.1 million); (d) CFCO railway: procurement and renewal of locomotives and rolling stock, track renewal, installation of signalling systems, and expansion of workshops (US$ 45.6 million); and upgrading of 18 km and realignment of 88 km of the Holle-Loubomo section (US$148.8 million). Financing is being sought to: complete the CFCO realignment project; procure machinery for maintaining realigned sections; and provide technical assistance for project implementation. The main benefit of completing the realignment project is that it will permit the railway to continue to perform its historical role as a regional transport artery, serving Cameroon, CAR, Chad and Gabon, while also making it possible for the Government to exploit the rich forestry resources of northern Congo. The Government is giving high priority to such development since exploitation of forestry has the greatest potential to establish a sustained economic growth pattern outside the petroleum sector. The implementation of this policy has been held back by several difficulties which are being resolved. Nevertheless, any further efforts will be doomed to failure without completing the realignment since the full capacity of the railway will soon be reached and further incremental timber evacuation will become impossible, unless the Government were to cancel transport agreements reached with neighboring countries.