BACK	ANGOLA-TRANSPORT: Reviving a Former Lifeline

Battered wooden boxes filled with survey gear and conductor's hats sit against one wall. An architect's rendering of a railway station leans against another, while piles of black and white photos litter a table top.

Before Angola's independence from Portugal in 1975, the Benguela railway hauled hundreds of thousands of tonnes of wood, minerals, livestock and other material from the interior of the country, and from Zambia and the former Zaire, to Angola's Atlantic ports of Lobito and Benguela.

Soon after independence, though, the country plunged into a civil war that pitted the government against rebels of the National Union for the Total Liberation of Angola (UNITA). The railway line, stretching the entire width of the country from the Atlantic to the city of Luau on the border of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), was wrecked. Saboteurs dynamited the steel tracks, blew up bridges, bombed railway stations and derailed trains.

Now there is a plan to rebuild the railway. Officials here say the line could be functional in as little as 30 months.

The scheme to revive the railway is being headed by an Italian company, Tor di Valli, which plans to do the minimum amount of repairs on the line needed to get freight moving as quickly as possible. Later it will start a second, 14-year project, that will make more permanent repairs.

It will be no easy task. Nearly all the 1,350-kilometre line will have to be repaired to some degree. The company plans to replace all the rails and sleepers, reconstruct 22 passenger stations and three work stations and rebuild the telephone and signals system. The entire line also has to be cleared of deadly landmines laid down by the two sides during the war.

But officials here say the project is vital if Angola's economy is ever to be developed. ''This railway is one of the keys to the reconstruction of the Angolan economy,'' said Angola's Minister of Commerce, Vitorino Hossi. ''I can't tell you how important it is for us. With this railway, Angola has a future.''

The Angolan government and Tor di Valli have come up with a unique barter arrangement to finance the work on the railway. In exchange for fixing the line, the company will be allowed to harvest, for export, a series of eucalyptus plantations totalling some 37,000 hectares.

The plantations were planted over 100 years ago by the Portuguese, who anticipated using the wood to power the steam locomotives used at the time.

Claudio Insenga, Tor di Valli's representative in Angola, says the harvest from the plantations will bring in more than 500 million U.S. dollars, enough to cover the expenses of rehabilitation and make a profit for the company. ''This is a very good deal for the government and for the company,'' says Insenga.

He explains that the port of Lobito, the line's terminal, is in very good condition and has adequate draft (about 10 meters) to accommodate large freighters. Though work is just beginning outside of Lobito, Insenga says the line will progress rapidly.

The 150-kilometre line from Lobito inland is in good condition but a stretch of 400 kilometres between Cubal in Benguela Province to Kuito in Bie Province is in very poor state with four bridges out. In the far eastern Moxico Province, the company will have to repair 20 bridges, says Insenga.

The project is not without its critics. Many officials here say that Angola's political situation is still far too unstable to embark on a project of this magnitude. They point out that UNITA is still firmly entrenched over most of the territory that the line crosses.

Critics also say that although UNITA and the government signed a peace agreement in 1994, a return to hostilities cannot be ruled out, noting that the government launched an offensive into UNITA zones in the northeast in May.

Others say Tor di Valli is not the right company for the project. ''Here in Angola there are many unforeseen problems. This project will be crippled by labour strikes, problems with local administrators and UNITA wanting to profit from the trees,'' predicts one critic.

''Tor di Valli is too small a company. It isn't financially strong enough to weather these storms. Angola needs this rail line, it is too important to us to have this company waste three years on it and go bankrupt,'' adds the critic.

Insenga dismisses the criticisms, saying the project is sound. ''We have thought about all these things and feel we can more than deal with them,'' he says. With the change of leadership in the former Zaire, the giant mines in the south of that country could once again begin exporting through Angola, he adds.

The mines, including copper, cobalt, gold and magnesium could provide immense wealth to the railway. In the early 1980's copper production alone in ex-Zaire was around 500,000 tonnes a year. (END/IPS/LM/KB/97)