On Tuesday, Uganda announced that it had signed a $3 billion agreement with a Turkish company to construct an electric railway line that will connect the landlocked country to neighboring Kenya. The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project will extend from Uganda’s capital, Kampala, to the border town of Malaba, which lies on the frontier with Kenya, according to Uganda’s Transport Minister, Katumba Wamala.
“We have entered into a contract with Turkey’s Yapi Merkezi for the construction of a 272-kilometre (170-mile) railway line, valued at 2.7 billion euros, or $3 billion,” Wamala stated during an interview with AFP. He added that construction on the line is slated to begin in November, with Yapi Merkezi committing to complete the project within four years.
The railway is part of a broader 1,700-kilometre regional rail project aimed at improving transportation links in East Africa. Wamala explained that once the railway network is operational, Uganda hopes to significantly reduce the delays associated with transporting goods from Kenya’s Mombasa port, a key entry point for Ugandan imports.
Yapi Merkezi confirmed that the deal includes both the construction of the railway and the provision of rail vehicles. The new trains are expected to travel at speeds of up to 120 kilometers per hour and will have the capacity to transport 25 million tons of cargo annually. This will dramatically reduce Uganda’s transport costs, which have long been a burden on the country’s economy.
Ramathan Ggoobi, Permanent Secretary at Uganda’s Ministry of Finance, stated in a video shared by the government, “With this railway, we expect to cut cargo transport costs by half. Currently, Uganda ranks as the second most expensive route in the world for cargo transport, but with this project, we aim to become one of the most competitive.”
The Ugandan project follows a similar agreement signed between Yapi Merkezi and Tanzania for the construction of an electric railway line linking key hubs in that country. In July, Tanzania launched services on the SGR line connecting its main city, Dar es Salaam, with the capital, Dodoma. In 2022, Tanzania also signed a $2.2 billion deal with a Chinese firm to complete the final segment of its SGR line, designed to link the country’s main port with neighboring nations.
