(Posted 14th October 2024)
Standard gauge electric railway line to be built between the Kenyan border in Malaba to Kampala (Phase 1)
Turkish construction company Yapi Merkezi and Uganda government sign contract for the SGR extension to link Kampala to the Kenyan capital Nairobi and the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa
Construction of the nearly 280 kms long line from the Kenyan border to Kampala is estimated to cost some 3 billion US Dollars and will be financed from internal resources within Uganda as well as export credit facilities – the latter yet to be disclosed. Work is due to start in November this year already and over half of the required land has already been acquired.
An earlier agreement signed in 2015 with a Chinese state company was nullified by Uganda as the Chinese company dilly dallied over the start of construction and financing.
Yapi Merkezi notably has regional experience in railway construction as Tanzania too ditched Chinese companies in favour of this Turkish firm, which has since proven that it was the right choice at the time – completing construction on time and on budget.
Kenya and Uganda, alongside Rwanda, agreed to develop the SGR System from Mombasa to Kampala – and beyond – via Nairobi, Kisumu and Kenya has extended the SGRline from Nairobi to Naivasha where is currently ends although the section to the Ugandan border, and to Kisumu, is also due to be completed in time to link with the Ugandan SGR line.
Project coordinator in Uganda is one Perez Wamburu who confirmed the signing earlier today to the media after the Ugandan Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka had approved the contract submitted to his office for legal scrutiny,
ATCNews had extensively reported about the upcoming SGR railway network in Eastern Africa for the past 12 years and relevant articles can be found via https://atcnews.org/?s=SGR
