Before the year ends, work is expected to start on the much anticipated multibillion-dollar Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), which would run from the Kenyan-Ugandan border at Malaba to Kampala.
The project coordinator, Mr Perez Wamburu, announced that M/s Yapi Merkezi, a Turkish contractor, will now be building the Malaba-Kampala (eastern route).
The amount of money that the Turkish corporation is investing in the project is unknown. After eight years of non-delivery, Kampala terminated the deal early last year, despite the Chinese having agreed to invest over $2.2 billion.
“We are at the tail end of the procurement of Yapi Merkezi. We have discussed the costs and we are at the bottom line of agreeing that we shall have the contract after it has been approved by the Attorney-General. We hope to start before the end of this year,” Mr Wamburu told the media during a briefing at Uganda Media Centre in Kampala. “We have done due diligence on this company and we have seen what they have done in Tanzania.”
This development occurs nine years after the project’s inception in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda, and other partner states of the East African Community. The project’s goal is to lower the high transportation expenses brought on by cargo delays.
According to Mr. Wamburu, the initiative would soon be submitted for review by the Ministry of Finance.
Speaking at the same function, Mr. Godfrey Kabyanga, the Minister of State for ICT and National Guidance, disclosed the reasons behind the first Chinese contractor’s failure, citing unfavourable circumstances.
To finance the building of the Malaba-Kampala SGR line, Uganda first approached China Exim Bank.
“Their conditions were not favourable to us but we’ve gone with the Turkish firm. They are more favourable and we are going to work with them,” Mr Kabyanga said. “The development of the SGR is on and work will commence as soon as the financing arrangements are sorted so Ugandans should not be sceptical,” he added.
Kenya and Uganda set out to design an SGR system that would connect Mombasa, Nairobi, and Kisumu to Kampala.
According to Mr. Kabyanga, the Ministry of Works submitted a report on the status of the SGR project in Uganda to the Cabinet during its Monday meeting.
The 1,500-kilometer railway project also aims to create a modern, high-capacity network that will speed up transit, make it easier for people and goods to move around, and encourage economic growth by establishing seamless connectivity between Uganda and its neighbouring nations.
To connect the member states and increase trade in the more than 300 million-person region, the presidents of South Sudan, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda started building the SGR in 2013.
Only Tanzania and Kenya have seen notable advancements in their national construction lines thus far. The planned 332-kilometer Malaba-Kampala stretch will be constructed.
