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Prosper Ndlovu, Business Editor
THE National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has opened up its massive mechanical workshop facilities in Bulawayo for outside commercial jobs.

The giant utility is showcasing this opportunity at the on-going Mining, Engineering and Transport Exhibition (Mine Entra) in Bulawayo, a platform it has participated in for the past 23 years.

Public relations manager, Mr Nyasha Maravanyika, said their massive mechanical workshop offers huge potential, opportunities and growth prospects throughout the mining, engineering and transport value and related sectors.

“As a result of the initiative, NRZ engineering workshops comprising of qualified engineering staff from four NRZ divisions namely mechanical, signals, electrical and bridge-yard, have been rebranded to

“Inter-Rail-Tech” with the motto ‘engineering drive for success’, said Mr Maravanyika.

“The workshops are among the largest integrated engineering workshops in Southern Africa and are geared to provide a one stop solution to the mining and engineering industries.”

He said the new Inter-Rail-Tech would provide commercial services covering a wider spectrum of mechanical, electrical and structural engineering, offering designing, fabrication, manufacturing, reconditioning, repairs, rewinding, servicing and consultancy as well as boiler and wire rope maintenance inspections.

“With qualified technical staff comprising of engineers, technicians and artisans, the NRZ has realised that there is a huge market for Inter-Rail-Tech services. Inter-Rail-Tech is targeting mining, production, manufacturing and agricultural sectors as well as individuals to serve them, as it believes no job is too small or too large to execute,” said Mr Maravanyika.

He said the idea behind Inter-Rail-Tech brand came courtesy of its excess capacity in the form of idle machinery. The desire to accommodate outside jobs signifies the organization’s drive to unlock value and increase capacity utilization of these workshops, said Mr Maravanyika.

“The gap in the market for services offered by Inter-Rail-Tech came as a result of a number of companies based in Bulawayo, the Midlands and the country at large closing down due to operational and economic challenges. This has prompted the NRZ workshops, which have been receiving enquiries from industry across the board for the utilisation of their services, to play a key role in standing-in for the closed industries,” he said.

Inter-Rail-Tech boasts a wide range of industrial machinery and equipment, CNC-Computerised lathe machine; balancing machine for balancing rotors, turbines and armatures; pressing machines which can press up to 150 tons; a foundry; jack hammers for civil works; vacuum pressure impregnation plant; mobile cranes and bulldozer. It also offers a one stop shop where a complete quality product is deliverable and is market flexible through barter deals.

“The Inter-Rail-Tech projects speak volumes about NRZ’s future oriented thinking coupled with a zeal to consolidate our position of ‘unlocking engineering capacity – catalyst for economic growth’, allows us to set new trends within the engineering field,” said Mr Maravanyika.

Going forward, he added, NRZ’s Inter-Rail-Tech seeks to adopt total quality management and is working towards ISO Certification.