Zambia is planning to build five new railway lines to link its mining provinces to all regional trade corridors, in the landlocked nation’s latest drive to boost its inadequate infrastructure facilities, the Zambian presidency said on Wednesday.

The new lines, to be built by the state-owned Zambia Railways, are intended to provide reliable and cost-effective bulk transportation for the mining, agriculture, and energy sectors, the presidency said in a statement.

The railway projects, to be built over the next five years, are expected to help the copper-producing nation end over-reliance on the ailing Tazara railway line through Tanzania, which is the sole railway link to a seaport.

“The development of our railway transport sector will ensure that the country becomes the hub for regional business transactions and thereby accelerate economic development,” the presidency quoted President Michael Sata as saying.

In April, Zambia raised $1 billion from a sovereign bond to fund various infrastructure projects. In 2012, Zambia raised $750 million from its debut bond.

The new lines earmarked for development include a link which will connect the copper-mining town of Chingola to Angola, giving the country’s mining heartlands an alternative and shorter export route through ports that dot Angola’s coastline. The cost of the planned projects isn’t known.

In 2012, the Zambian government restored the management of its railway network to Zambia Railways. The company has since been implementing a $1.5 billion rehabilitation and expansion project on the 2,000 kilometer stretch of railway line.

Zambia has for decades relied on Tazara to export is copper and cobalt through the Tanzanian port city of Dar Es Salaam. But years of under-investment have left the Chinese-built railway line unreliable, forcing miners to opt for the costly road transport to ship minerals through South African ports.

In recent years, the 1,860-kilometer Tazara line has been hit by a spate of work stoppages due to sporadic workers’ strikes over unpaid wages.

Last week, Tanzania and Zambia, which jointly own the cash-strapped Tazara, announced that they would inject up to $80 million to bail it out. Zambia is Africa’s second largest copper producer after Congo. Last year, the country exported around 900,000 metric tons of copper.