TANZANIA’s president Mr John Magufuli officially launched construction on April 12 of the first phase of the country’s 2561km standard-gauge railway project which will eventually link the Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam with Mwanza on Lake Victoria and Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika, as well as neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi.
THE governments of Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania have issued a request for expressions of interest from suitable qualified and experienced firms which have the capacity to finance, design, construct, operate and maintain the proposed 1661km Dar Es Salaam-Isaka-Kigali/Keza-Musongati (DIIKM) railway project as a public-private partnership (PPP).
TANZANIA has introduced a 1.5% infrastructure development levy on imports to assist the government with raising $US 14.2bn to finance new rail projects and improve existing lines over the next five years.
TWO contracts valued at $US 9bn have been awarded by the Tanzanian government to Chinese civil engineering companies to construct two new standard-gauge railways, one linking the country to Burundi and Rwanda, and the other connecting mines to a port.
THE WORLD Bank has approved the allocation of $US 300m towards Tanzania's Dar es Salaam - Isaka railway upgrade project, which is part of a larger scheme to link Dar es Salaam with Kigali in Rwanda and Gitega in Burundi.
THE African Development Bank (AfDB) has provided $US 500m to the East African Community (EAC), which covers Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, to roll out projects under its Railway Master Plan starting this year.