USD 1.3 billion Chinese loan brings Tanzania SGR to Mwanza

January 9, 2021 in Business, Foreign News, Infrastructure, Transport by Editor

Tanzania and China have concluded a USD 1.32 billion funding agreement for the extension of its Standard Gauge Railway development to the northern city of Mwanza, further expanding connectivity options for Uganda. The debt and construction contracts were signed Friday during a visit to Dar by Beijing’s foreign minister Mr. Wang Yi.
The money will fund the construction of the 341k sector between a dry port facility at Isaka, where the line will branch off from the Turkish funded limb from Dar es Salaam. Civil contractors China Civil Engineering Construction Company and China Railway Construction Company have been retained to undertake the works.
Details of timelines were not immediately available but the development could add impetus to Uganda’s SGR development which has been held back by uncertainty over when Kenya is likely to extend its SGR line from Naivasha to the two countries common border at Malaba.
Uganda has indicated that it would start construction of its internal SGR network starting fiscal 2022/23 with options for connecting to the Tanzanian system through an interchange facility to be built at Majanji on the shores of Lake Victoria.