Maputo - Mozambique plans to solicit international bids for a $2bn railway and port development project next month to boost its coal exports, the chairperson of state-owned rail and ports group CFM said on Wednesday.
"By the end of this year we should issue the tender. The project will cost around $2bn, including the port," Rosario Mualeia said on the sidelines of a Coaltrans conference.
The tender will be for a 525km line from the Tete province to Macuse, in Mozambique's Zambezia province, and a new port, able to handle around 20 million tonnes of coal per year.
Mualeia also said a delayed upgrade of its Sena line, the only railway currently linking to the coal-rich Moatize basin with the coast, to enable it to carry 6.5 million tonnes of coal, will be completed by the end of the year.
A further upgrade to 20 million tonnes is scheduled for completion by end of 2014.