Tanzania standard gauge railway

President Samia Suluhu Hassan witnesses the signing of the Contract for the Construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) section from Tabora to Kigoma ...

Later, we can think of upgrading the existing MGR via Nakuru to Kisumu and via Eldoret to Malaba,” Murkomen said in a statement on December 15. “We’re going to build a brand new [SGR line] from Kampala to Kasese. The construction of the 506km section of the SGR that runs from Tabora to Kigoma on the northeastern shores of Lake Tanganyika and close to the border with Burundi and the DRC will be critical in linking the landlocked countries of Rwanda, Burundi and DRC to the port of Dar es Salaam. Kenya’s Road and Transport Cabinet secretary Kipchumba Murkomen recently said the Kenya Kwanza administration in partnership with the Chinese government is keen on extending the SGR from Naivasha’s Mai Mahiu to the border of Uganda through a five-year plan that will see the multibillion-dollar railway line run through Narok, Bomet, Nyamira, Kisumu, and finally Malaba. In 2014, the Government of Kenya entered into a tripartite agreement with the governments of Rwanda and Uganda to construct a standard gauge railway from Mombasa through Kampala Uganda to Kigali Rwanda. Analysts reckon that Tanzania’s signing of the contract with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and China Railway Construction Corporation gives Dar a fighting chance in the race to control the trade routes.