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 World Bank has agreed to provide a $US 500m seed capital loan with a seven-year repayment moratorium to kick-start Indian Railways' (IR) station redevelopment programme, which will be financed through a combination of intergovernmental agreements and public-private partnerships.