Transport in Malawi

The MV Ilala connects Likoma Island with the mainland, as well as the Malawian and Mozambican sides of the lake.

As of 1 December 1999 the Central East African Railways, a consortium led by Railroad Development Corporation, won the right to operate the network.

The 797-kilometre (495 mi), 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge line extends from the Zambian border at Mchinji in the west via Lilongwe to Blantyre and Makhanga in the south.

An extension from Mchinji to Chipata in Zambia opened in 2010,[4] and there is a proposal to eventually link up from there with the TAZARA railway at Mpika.

In 2006, a Brazilian company (VALE) announced plans to build a rail branch line to the Moatize coal mine in western Mozambique from the Nacala Corridor line to export coal via the port of Nacala; the link would cross Malawi.

The national Railroad Development Corporation map shows a proposed extension across the border to Chipata in Zambia.

[6] Also in 2006, the president of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika asked his Mozambiquan counterpart, Armando Guebuza, to consider the provision of a new 250 kilometre rail connection from Nsanje - the then-current southern extent of Malawi Railways - to the Indian Ocean port of Chinde, near the mouth of the Zambesi.

In the past, Malawi's telecommunications system has been named as some of the poorest in Africa, but conditions are improving, with 130,000 land line telephones being connected between 2000 and 2007.