28 Aug 2016

The Botswana Railways chief executive officer, Mr Dominick Ntwaagae said there was no sabotage or corruption done during the re-instatement of the passenger train.

Addressing a sub council meeting in Mahalapye recently, Mr Ntwaagae said during the launch of the passenger train in March 2016, on the day of arrival in Mahalapye the train had no technical problems.

He said the train left Mahalapye the following day in the morning and after passing Palapye the engine stopped running until it reached Francistown.

Mr Ntwaagae said they found out that there was water contamination in five fuel tanks which were drained in Gaborone.

He said the matter was investigated and it was established that one of their employees erroneously filled the diesel tank with water when he was putting water in the coaches.

“It was further established that the underlying reasons were that the diesel filling point was not labeled and that  the employee was not trained on where the water points were,” he said.

Mr Ntwaagae said issues were resolved at the account of the Manufacturer/Supplier except some of the costs associated with contamination of fuel.

He said the total cost incurred by Botswana Railways associated with the cleaning of the fuel tanks due to issue relating to water contamination in the diesel tanks in the generator vans was P14, 820.

Mr Ntwaagae said there were faults in the air-conditioning system in all coaches, the air-conditioning units kept on tripping the electrics of the coaches and the issue was finally resolved by resetting the air-conditioning unit parameters as well and changing the condenser fan on the air units.

He also said the faults in the toilet system and electrical system in all coaches, was mainly due to workmanship as well as not enough time for testing when the train was in motion at operating conditions.

Mr Ntwaagae said the last 15 coaches arrived in Botswana on July 14, 2016 and are currently under commissioning. ENDS