The Central East African Railways (Cear) is constructing a 1.3 kilometre-long concrete fence along its railway line passing through Mbayani Township in Blantyre as a way of keeping communities away from the line and save their lives in a case of train accidents.
Cear Communications and Corporate Image Manager Chisomo Mwamadi said the company noted that communities are erecting structures and throwing garbage on the rail a development that is putting at risk lives of the communities residing along the rail line.
“Mbayani is one of the busy areas where our line in passing and we have had three accidents involving our trains where community members are victims. So we are putting up this fence to protect the people here who are also our customers. However, apart from constructing this fence we will also be stepping up awareness campaigns to prevent endangering people’s lives,” Mwamadi said.
Apart from the fence in Mbayani, the company also has plans to construct a similar structure in places such as Nayuchi which are also busy and people directly interfere with the rail line.
“Sometimes you find people chatting right on the railway line, drunks tend to sleep there and they become victims to passing trains. As such, our plans are to cover all strategic areas with the concrete fence to keep people away. By doing so, we are assured of maximum safety in additional to our campaigns,” he said.
One of the residents of Mbayani, Chislica Paulo, said the fence would keep children who learn at Mbayani Primary School from playing on the rail line.
Cear has spent $260,000 on the three-month project that kicked-off on April 1 2017.
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