Tanzania, Uganda to build trance border railway line
 Funke Atohengbe, Pretoria

Tanzania and Uganda have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to build a trance border railway line that will link Tanga Port in Tanzania with Kampala via Musoma Port in Uganda.

Work on the over 3.5 billion dollar rail project is expected to begin in five years time after the survey and logistics have been completed.

The project is expected to offer Ugandan businessmen an alternative route direct from the Indian Ocean and provide alternative freight way to Mombasa port in particular where they have faced stiff competition.

The new route will provide opportunity for the conveyance of large volume of cargo, reduce cost of transport and the pressure exerted by heavy trucks on Ugandan high ways.

The Ugandan Minister for Works Mr John Byabagambi denied reports that the rail line would go through the Serengeti games reserve but rather, it will go through Mumbani to Arusha in the north of Tanzania to Musoma to link up Bukasa in Uganda.

Byabagambi said both Tanzania and Uganda will provide funds for the project; making Kampala a co-owner of the project with accruable interest at Tanga Port unlike the Mombasa port where it mainly use the services and at competitive interest rate.

Kenya which has occupied a vantage position in the Ugandan import business is not joining the project because it believes the project would be a challenge to the existing Mombasa – Malaba line to Kampala and the Lamu corridor to South Sudan and DR Congo.

An MoU has been signed between Kampala for the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company to conduct a feasibility study of the project which was initiated by Presidents Yoweri Musaveni of Uganda and his Tanzania counterpart Jakaya Kikwete at a cost of 450 million US dollars.

Williams