Progress steady for East African rail link project

There’s steady progress in the construction of the Mombasa-Kigali railway line after a funding agreement was signed by Kenya, Rwanda and Ugandan governments with the Chinese bank, Exim Bank. The funds will specifically oversee the construction of the section that will connect Nairobi to Naivasha town, located about 100km north of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

To date, 60% of the Standard Guage Railway (SGR) section connecting Mombasa to -Nairobi has already been completed.

Today I inspected a section of the Standard Gauge Railway at Mtito Andei pic.twitter.com/pqNprVaqZB

— Uhuru Kenyatta (@UKenyatta) January 23, 2015

The 2,935km SGR line is one of Africa’s biggest infrastructural projects, that aim opening up the continent for regional and international trade . Besides the Mombasa-Kigali rail link, a seven-year initiative to connect Niger and Ivory Coast is to begin next year as part of efforts to improve rail infrastructure in west Africa.

During the summit of the Northern Corridor Integration Project (NCIP) held on 10 December 2015 in Rwanda, it was affimed that the finalization and study proposals of the financial plans for the remaining sections were assigned to different ministers attending the summit. Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame, the President of Uganda Kaguta Museveni, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Aggrey Tisa Sabuni and, Presidential Advisor for Economic Affairs of the Republic of South Sudan attended the summit.

I have arrived in Kigali, Rwanda, for the 12th Northern Corridor Integration Projects Summit. pic.twitter.com/KOQrlt8chc

— Uhuru Kenyatta (@UKenyatta) December 10, 2015

The project was launched in October 2014.

A similar project is also underway, to link Tanzania’s main port in Dar Es Salaam with Kigali.

This will see Rwanda, a landlocked country, receive two direct links with two Indian Ocean main ports, through which the majority of imported goods are currently transiting.