Tanzania and Burundi are strengthening trade ties between the two countries with the construction of a 282 km railway linking a nickel mine in Burundi to the port of Dar Es Salaam.
The Tanzanian Railway Company has signed a US$2.15 billion deal with two Chinese firms – China Railway Engineering Group and China Railway Engineering Design and Consulting Group Company – to build the Uvinza-Musongati standard gauge railway (SGR) line.
Mining Weekly reports the railway is being financed by the AfDB through a concessional loan. According to Tanzania’s Finance Minister, Mwigulu Nchemba, it is the first time the bank has invested in developing Tanzania’s railways.
Transport Minister Makame Mbarawa said the signing of the railway contracts ‘is the coming into fruition of a bilateral agreement between the governments of Tanzania and Burundi’.
Construct Africa reports that the work includes building a 1 km bridge connecting Tanzania and Burundi, designed to carry rail and road traffic, as well as about seven stations and one freight terminal in the Musongati area. It is part of the 693 km second phase of Tanzania’s bigger SGR project.
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