CAMRAIL partners with Italian firm Italfer to upgrade Cameroon's death-trap rail-tracks

The concessionary train transport operator Camrail, subsidiary of Bolloré, and the Italian company Italfer held a meeting on 31 May in Douala in respect of a partnership. The final objective, according to reliable sources, is that the tandem accelerate modernisation of the railways in Cameroon.

During this meeting, Camrail indicated that it has, for example, already renovated 175 km of lines between Batchenga, in the Centre, and Ka'a, in the East region. In this regard, investment of an amount of FCfa 2.4 billion, enabled renovation of railway ties, bi-blocks sleepers and ballast beds. In mid-May, Eric Melet, Bolloré Transport & Logistics General Manager of Development, visited the work sites, by way of Ebaka quarry, to see what had been achieved.

The company Italfer S.P.A, for its part, represents a consortium of Italian companies. It signed with the Minister of Public Works (MINTP), Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, last April, an agreement linked to renewing the existing railway lines (Douala-Mbanga-Kumba and Douala-Yaoundé). The company has in its specifications the supply of passenger rolling stock (passenger cars, railcars). It must also construct a passenger station at Yaoundé and provide its support in the implementation of a training policy in railway professions in Cameroon.