Nacala Corridor – A challenge at the scale of the Mota-Engil Group

On the day the works for the Nacala corridor were awarded – which, along with a total of five works in Angola, enabled a significant increase in 900 million Euros for Africa – the CEO Jorge Coelho deemed it a historical day for the company due to the size of the awarded projects (which represent over half of the 1,600 million Euros in Africa) and also because the Nacala project allows for a collaboration with Vale, the second greatest mining company in the world, in a huge project that shows the trust in Mota-Engil’s work.

Throughout the tender for the Nacala corridor, Mota-Engil competed with other established international companies within a project that cost a total of 706 million Dollars (approximately 568 million Euros) and a deadline of 27 months.

In terms of finance, the fact that Mota-Engil obtained financing from Standard Bank – a South African financial partner – is noteworthy, since they highly contribute for the project to be finalised, showing a clear sign of trust and acknowledgement of the growing path Mota-Engil have established in Africa.  

This project foresees a brand new railway between the border of Mozambique and Malawi and Nkaya Junction – close to Liownde, Malawi’s capital – that is 145.1 km long with a very demanding and difficult geography on a mixed land with large excavations and embankments.

Throughout the project – which will count on 3,500 workers at its peak – around 28 works of art shall be built (4,840 metres long) estimating 10 million m3 of earthmoving machinery, 19 km of hydraulic lines, 9.7 km of Box Culverts, 225,000 railway lines and 175,000 m3 of ballast, among other impressive indicators of the project size.

This section is part of a railway corridor with a total extension of over 900 km that connects the coal mining concessions of Moatize – province of Tete – in Mozambique to the Nacala Harbour, crossing Malawi, making this an essential infrastructure for channelling the mineral resources through the greatest harbour with the deepest sea in southern Africa with access to the Indian Ocean.  

Through the strategic importance of the Nacala corridor awarding for Mota-Engil, SINERGIA has contacted Gilberto Rodrigues, CEO of Mota-Engil Africa, so that he could give more details on the project and its actual execution.

Read here the interview to Gilberto Rodrigues, CEO of Mota-Engil Africa