Mozambican public company Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique and Sociedade de Desenvolvimento do Porto de Maputo (MPDC), as well as Matola Coal Terminal (TCM), have announced a set of measures to decongest the National Road Number Four (N4) and other roads in the city of Matola, in order to make cargo transport more flexible.
Among the measures in question was the creation of an advanced post next to the Pessene weighbridge, to control the flow of trucks heading for the port of Maputo, in line with the capacity of the port terminals.
Digital solutions were also introduced for managing the flow of traffic heading to petrol stations, similar to what is already happening at the Port of Maputo and TCM, as well as the development of an area to improve traffic management.
According to the companies, these measures come after it was noted that, over the last few days, intense traffic of trucks heading to the Port of Maputo has blocked some stretches of the N4, causing inconvenience to other users of the highway.
“From the survey carried out, it was concluded that the trucks causing congestion are those carrying coal and magnetite, bound for TCM, and those carrying fuel heading for the terminals installed at the port of Matola,” the companies clarify.
CFM in particular explains that the sudden increase in the number of trucks is a reflection of factors such as the shutdown [maintenance stoppage] of the Ressano Garcia railway line, as well as the increase in the number of vehicles transporting fuel.
On the other hand, in order to increase rail traffic, in recent months CFM and Transnet have been working together on migrating freight to rail. Part of this work has recently resulted in the agreement for uninterrupted train movements between Mozambique and South Africa.
