By Edrisa Ssentongo
The state minister of Works and Transport in charge of Works Hon. Musa Ecweru has led a high level engagement with the Islamic Development Bank led by Dr.Ishaq Idris the Regional Hub Manager of Islamic Development Bank on the appraisal mission on the Malaba – Kampala Standard gauge Railway.
The meeting focused on appraisal discussion and accelerating financial closure for the sh2.7 billion railway project which the government of Uganda has positioned as the transformative regional corridor to reduce logistics costs and strengthen trade competitiveness.
” This railway is transformative for Uganda and the wider region, time is of essence and we should close financing early and proceed without delay,”said Musa Ecweru.
Over 60% of the right of way has been acquired with 150km of land secured across Tororo, Butaleja, Namutumba, Luuka, Iganga and Buikwe districts and early works have been fully financed by the government of Uganda indicating readiness to move into implementation.
Uganda had partnered with China harbour engineering Company between 2015- 2025 however Chinese leaders withdrew over connectivity concerns with Standard gauge Railway of Kenya but Uganda signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract with Turkish Firm Yapi Merkezi based on their experience and performance with Tanzania’ s standard gauge Railway.
The standard gauge Railway is designed for electric traction, supporting speed of up to 120km per hour for Ugandan firms
The government has invested more than sh 32.8 billion in compensation and early works to de-risk the project for international lenders and once the project is operational the standard gauge Railway is expected to reduce money while cutting tranzit lines from several days to under 24 hours.
