The corporation plans to invest up to US $200 million (P1.2 billion) to construct the necessary infrastructure like bridges to connect a railway line from Mmamabula to Erasmus, Andrew Lunga, the BR chief executive officer said in an interview.

"There are more than P200 billion worth of opportunities to explore in the transportation of coal, so we are positioning ourselves to benefit from that industry," he said. Eskom will import electricity directly from the coal fired Mmamabula station and will also import coal for other power plants in South Africa to boost its power needs of about 2000 MW per year.

Botswana Power Corporation and Eskom on Monday signed an agreement for the supply of electricity from the Mmmabula Power Station, which is due for commissioning in 2008 The CEO said that BR is working closely with a company called CIC and are currently doing a feasibility study to determine all the logistics required to operate the railway like locomotives and rail lines.

The Mmamabula-Erasmus railway line is part of BR's P1.6 billion turnaround strategy plan, he said.

Lunga stated that the strategy plan would be implemented in the next 12 months if approved by cabinet. He added that the strategy would enable the national rail carrier diversify from its large dependency on transit goods to export. "Transit goods are very low, and they have been for years, so we need to change the way we do business and diversify to exporting which has been on the increase."

BR lost millions of Pula in revenue from transit goods when the Ramatlabama-Ramokgwebana line was abandoned in preference of the Beit Bridge line, which links South Africa directly to Zimbabwe. Botswana used to benefit from goods, which passed through the country going as far as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Lunga said that there has been a tremendous increase of export of Copper, Coal and Soda Ash from Botswana to neighbouring countries like South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He added that the demand for the exportation of these mineral resources has of late exceeded their wagon capacity. "We will rehabilitate our wagons and invest in new ones to meet the demand."

Last month BR suspended the day passenger train between Francistown and Gaborone, a move Lunga says is part of their turnaround strategy. He disclosed that after finishing consultations with the Ministry of Finance, they would introduce modern coaches called Diesel Multiple Units that travel faster and more efficiently.

BR has seen a P350,000 profit in the past four months after the introduction of the Francistown-Bulawayo train in May. "We might start operating on a daily basis because people have been asking us if we can provide the service daily," Lunga said.

He also disclosed that the vandalism of property in the Francistown-Bulawayo train has subsided, but instead the theft of signal equipment and fuel has increased. However, Lunga says recently four people including BR employees were arrested on suspicion of stealing fuel.