Grapevine

Inside Uganda's SGR deal with Turkish firm

More than a decade after President Museveni joined regional leaders from Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan and Rwanda to break ground on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), construction of a 272-kilometre section of the planned 1,700km rail line is scheduled to get underway in November.

The government said yesterday that the first phase of the SGR project will cost €2.7 billion (about Shs10.8 trillion) courtesy of a loan from Citibank. There have been so many false dawns around the project after Uganda entered into an agreement with the China Harbour and Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) in 2015. State actors are, however, confident that with the Turkish company, Yapi Merkezi, in tow, light can finally be seen at the end of the corner.

Back on track

The Works and Transport Minister, Gen Edward Katumba Wamala, said yesterday that “the SGR will become the backbone of our surface transport system and will provide the much-needed transport capacity in the country and the region as cargo and passenger transport demand has been increasing rapidly over the last decade.”

Gen Wamala added: “As Uganda, we are aware that, for member countries to reap the most benefits out of SGR seamlessness, construction of the Naivasha-Kisumu-Malaba and the Malaba-Kampala SGR sections should be fast-tracked and ensure interconnectivity at the earliest possible time. These timelines have been discussed with our partners, the Government of the Republic of Kenya.”