 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND |
Sudan Railways Corporation is one of the longest railways in Africa. It operates a 5898 km long single line of 1.067 mm. Gauge. Construction of the railway lines started in 1897 and most of the track was constructed before 1930.
The railway's main route extends form Port Sudan via Atbara to Khartoum with an alternative link between Haiya and Sennar via Kassala. There are branch lines north to Karima and Wadi Halfa.
The latest extensions include new lines for transportation of Sudanese petroleum constructed between El Mujlad and Abu Jabra (52 km); and between the refinery in Abu Khiraiz and El Obeid station (10 km), all completed between the years 1995-1996.
SRC owns at present 115 mainline locomotives, 43 shunting locomotives, more than 4990 freight wagons, 971 tank wagons and 50 passenger coaches.
Main workshops for heavy repairs of rolling stock, signalling ad telecommunication's equipment are concentrated in Atbara. The city also accommodates a workshop for wagons' rehabilitation and maintenance; in addition to the other two subsidiary ones in Khartoum and Port Sudan.
Signalling system in the main trunk Port Sudan/Khartoum up to Sennar and Kassala is double by an open-wire system, in addition to VHF and telegraph; tablet and token system is operated by open-wire lines.
| ECONOMIC AND TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS |
SRC is characterised by the following salient features:
-lower marginal costs with increase in length of haulage
-large carrying capacity
-energy saving
All these characteristics qualify the railway to be the most suitable -economically and technically -for a large country like Sudan and for transportation of its major products, which are mainly agricultural.
| ADMINISTRATION |
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A Board of Directors and a General Manager who is responsible for the administration of the corporation according to the policy of the board, administer SRC. The General Manager has 5 deputies; D.G.M. for infrastructure, D.G.M. for research & development, D.G.M. for technical affairs, D.G.M. for operations and D.G.M. for finance, administration and economics.
The General Manager is assisted by 5 regional managers, i.e. Northern region (Atbara), Southern Region (Kosti), Eastern Region (Port Sudan), Western Region (Babanousa) and Central Region (Khartoum). SRC' s departments include locomotives and rolling stock, track and construction, traffic, signalling and telecommunications, police, finance and accounts, purchasing, personnel, planing and MIS, internal auditing, training, projects, co-operative corporation, safety, legal advisor and public relations.
| FUTURE PROSPECTS |
SRC launched a 5-year plan, which covers the period 2001-2005. Main objectives of the plan are as follows:
1. increase tons of transported to 2,5 million tons in the year 2001 and 4,5 million tons by the end of the plan period in the year 2005.
2. improvement of operation at efficiency and reduction of transportation cost to meet the requirements of Liberalization International Trade.
3. improvement of technical efficiency of rolling stock.
4. increase of running speed to 60 km/hr by the end of the year 2001 and 100 km/hr by the end of the yar 2005.
Major projects incorporated in the plan are show in the following table:
| PERMANENT WAY |
1. upgrading of the main trunk Port Sudan/Khartoum (135 Mill. USD)
2. re-railing of the line Khartoum/El Obeid to with 90 lb/yd rails (40 Mill USD)
3. rehabilitation of the line Rahad/Babanousa/Nyala (53 Mill.USD)
4. rehabilitation of the line Babanousa/Wau (23 Mill. USD)
5. construction of Salloom/Bashair line (10 Mill.USD)
TOTAL 261 Mill. USD
| ROLLING STOCK |
1. rehabilitation of 50 mainline locomotives (25 Mill. USD)
2. rehabilitation of shunting locomotives (3 Mill. USD)
3. purchase of 10 new Ml/locos (12 Mill.USD)
4. rehabilitation of 1000 freight wagons (10 Mill. USD)
5. rehabilitation of 50 passenger coaches and purchase of new ones (3 Mill. USD)
TOTAL 53 Mill. USD
| OTHERS |
1. modernisation of signalling and telecommunication (4,8 Mill. USD)
2. provision of machinery and equipment for mechanisation of permanent way maintenance (2,5 Mill. USD)
3. establishment of concrete sleepers factory (5 Mill. USD)
TOTAL 12,3 Mill. USD
| RESTRUCTURING OF THE RAILWAYS |
Following unprecedented visit of the General Omer Hassan Ahmed El Bashir the President of the Republic to Atbara in 24th October 2000, a Ministerial decree was issued for formation of a committee to study a restructuring and rehabilitation program to enable the railways to meet the requirements of the competitive transport market and the challenges of the 21st century. Recommendations of the committee were raised to the council of ministers in 6th December 2000 for study and approval. Those recommendations after their approval and execution will enable railway to play its true economic role and serve efficiently the transportation requirements of the country. |
