Govt sets ball rolling in Sh14tr rail project

Transport minister Samuel Sitta briefs the media yesterday in Dar es Salaam on the standard gauge railway project.  PHOTO | SALIM SHAO 

By Henry Mwangonde,The Citizen Correspondent

In Summary

• Minister says one foreign investor has already committed $500 million (Sh900 billion) to the project that will be the largest since independence
• The standard gauge (also Stephenson gauge after George Stephenson, International gauge or normal gauge) is a widely used railway track gauge. Approximately 60 per cent of lines in the world are this gauge. Except for Russia, Uzbekistan, and Finland, all high-speed lines are this gauge.The distance between the inside edges of the rails is defined to be 1435 mm .

Dar es Salaam. The government has announced plans for the construction of a standard gauge railway line to replace the existing Central Line.

Transport minister Samuel Sitta said yesterday the government, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum (WEF), has appointed American financial advisory group Rothschild as a transaction adviser for the 2,561 kilometres project, which will cost an estimated $7.6 billion (Sh14 trillion). 

Rothschild will source for the funding of the construction through a syndicated loan facility from interested private companies. Rothschild is one of the top financial advisory firms in the United States.

According to Mr Sitta, one foreign investor has already committed $500 million (Sh900 billion) to the project that will by far be the largest since Tanzania’s independence.

A consortium of Chinese companies will be responsible for the construction of the standard gauge railway line, according to the minister. It will be completed in five years (2015-2021), with President Jakaya Kikwete expected to lay the foundation stone in Mpiji, Coast Region, on June 30.

“We will implement this project under the Big Results Now (BRN) initiative and President Jakaya Kikwete will break ground for the construction exercise before he leaves office,” Mr Sitta said.  Upon completion, the project is expected to reduce the time cargo takes from Dar es Salaam port to landlocked countries from more than a week currently to under one day.

The minister said coupled with the launch of cargo trains to DRC Burundi and Rwanda during the Central Corridor Railway Forum last week, it is estimated that a total of 300 million tonnes of cargo will be transported in a year in the entire railway system. He said such an amount is too much for the current railway to withstand as it can only carry five million tonnes a year.

The standard gauge rail line will carry freight trains at speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour and passenger trains at up to 120 kilometres per hour upon completion, according to Mr Sitta.

“The railway we have now cannot withstand such huge weights and high speeds and we know it will not last long,” he said.

Mr Sitta spoke a few days after Tanzania successfully hosted the central railway corridor forum that brought together the leaders from the EAC region and DR Congo to discuss the huge investment opportunity that the railway line portends for Tanzania and the regional economy. 

He said this will be the largest project to be carried by the government since independence saying no taxpayers’ money will be brought into the project since it will be operated under a syndicated deal, with investors recouping their investments through a Build Operate and Transfer mechanism for a period that will be agreed upon with the government.

According to the minister, the railway will be a catalyst to fast-track movement of goods from Dar es Salaam port to the landlocked countries of Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.