The National Railways of Zimbabwe has confirmed that a total of 51 decommissioned coaches were destroyed in a fire that broke out at the Bulawayo main station on Monday afternoon.
In an interview with Sunday News on Tuesday, NRZ Public Relations Manager Andrew Kunambura said that the value of the damage and the cause of the fire has yet to be determined. He said:
A total of 51 decommissioned passenger coaches were burnt by the fire which broke out on Monday around 1.30 PM.
The value of the burnt coaches is yet to be ascertained but since they were decommissioned, what it means is that we can only ascertain their disposable value as scrap.
We, together with the police and Fire Brigade, are still investigating the possible cause of the fire and we will update once the investigations are done.
Kunambura said the coaches had been decommissioned years ago after exceeding their lifespan and were awaiting disposal as scrap.
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