The construction of the East Africa’s Central Corridor railway line connecting the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo and back to Uganda is finally set to take off this year.
President John Magufuli of Tanzania together with his Rwandan counterpart, President Paul Kagame on Sunday announced that works on the transborder infrastructure project which was launched in 2015 will begin in 2018.
The announcement was made during President Kagame’s state visit to Tanzania which began on Sunday.
Upon completion, the muti-billion railway project will go along way in linking Central Africa to the sea and reducing the lengthy consignment time to two days, thereby boosting trade.
Currently, there is no effective regional railway network within the East Africa region except for the Tanzania-Zambia Railway line (Tazara). Once the ongoing construction of the second route; the Standard Gauge Railway to connect Kenya, Uganda and Juba is completed, and Uganda to Rwanda, there will be seamless railway access through the entire region.
In the East Africa Railway Masterplan, all the key capitals (Kampala, Nairobi, Juba, Dar-es Salam, Kisangani, Bujumbura, Kigali and Mombasa) will be linked. Eventually this should eliminate the non-tariff trade barriers that countries in the inland have often encountered in transporting cargo to the sea.
At a joint press conference on Sunday, both Presidents Magufuli and Kagame revealed that the 400 kilometre railroad will run from Isaka in Tanzania to Kigali.
The construction will be funded jointly by Rwanda and Tanzania and according to both Presidents, the relevant Ministries are set to fast track the implementation process.
“We want Foreign Ministers from the two countries to meet next week to start charting out the financing model. We want the construction to start immediately because the feasibility studies and all other preparations are complete,” President Magufuli told journalists.
He said that he and Kagame had agreed to begin securing financing to ensure the construction works are sped up.
On his part, President Kagame said; “I am happy to work with President Magufuli and other African presidents. They have given me these responsibilities because they are ready to give me support to enable me accomplish my tasks”.
On the Tanzanian end, works have already began with the first phase consisting of a 205 kilometre electric railway line running from the port city of Dar es Salaam to Morogoro in central Tanzania.
The USD 1.2 billion line, being built by Turkish firm Yapi Merkezi and Portuguese firm Mota-Engil, is expected to be completed by October 2019.