Kampala, October 14 –The Uganda government has signed an agreement with the Turkish construction firm, Yapi Merkezi, underwhich the Turkish firm will construct a 272 kilometre (169 miles) railway line to boost regional trade, a Ugandan official said today Monday.
Uganda’s Standard Gauge Railway project coordinator, Perez Wamburu, said the agreement was for the first section of a planned 1,700 km electric rail line, and the segment would cost 2.7 billion euros ($3 billion).
The construction will start next month, November and will be completed in four years, Wamburu said.
Uganda had entered into an agreement in 2015 with the China Harbour and Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) to implement the project on condition the firm helped secure funds for the railway from the Chinese government.
After years of fruitless talks, Uganda last year terminated the agreement and entered talks with the Turkish firm, Yapi Merkezi, which is carrying out a similar project in neighbouring Tanzania.
The rail section will run from the capital Kampala to Malaba at the border with Kenya, connecting landlocked Uganda to its neighbour’s rail network and on to the Indian Ocean seaport of Mombasa.
The project will increase trade and reduce transport costs, Uganda’s works ministry permanent secretary, Bageya Waiswa, said at the signing ceremony.
He said Uganda will use its own funds and credit from export credit organisations to finance the project, which will take 48 months to complete once started.
In 2013, leaders of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan and Rwanda broke ground on the construction of the SGR to connect the member states and boost trade in the region, which is home to more than 80 million people.
So far, only Kenya and Tanzania have made significant progress with the construction lines in their respective countries.
