Tanzania: Good News as Phase 1 of SGR Construction Reaches Over 70%

IT is good news to all Tanzanians that the construction of phase 1 of the...

standard gauge railway (SGR) is now at 75 per cent.

It will have six stations: Dar es Salaam, Pugu, Soga, Ruvu, Ngerengere and Morogoro This gives us great hope as once it is completed those travelling from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro and vice versa will save time and money for travelling 300km in just a short time as the passenger train will be travelling at 160km per hour.

This is an assurance the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, Dr Hassan Abbas, gave to journalists during a press conference in Dodoma on Sunday.

Phase 2 covers 422km (Morogoro to Makutupora), phase 3 covers 294km (Makutupora to Tabora), phase 4 covers 130km (Tabora to Isaka) and phase 5 covers 249km (Isaka to Mwanza).

This is the main SGR that covers 1,219km. The entire SGR network, which covers 2,561km, links Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Kigoma, Katavi and neighbouring countries of Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

This means in the future there will be more businesses and investments (services and goods) taking place around the central railway line.

That is people will be able to travel a long distance in a short time, which was not the case before.

Given the fact that there are over 50 million people in the country and more and more people flock to cities and towns, all these will benefit considerably from the SGR project.

We say this bearing in mind that more movements of people and goods and services will improve the incomes of Tanzanians and enable those living in other regions to travel more easily and work wherever they will be assigned.

For instance, the completion of phase 1 will enable people living between Dar es Salaam and Morogoro to travel easily from one point and the next - that is those residing in Dar es Salaam can work in Morogoro and vice versa.

So, the SGR project we will create more investment and business opportunities and change the lives of people who will utilise such opportunities.

The SGR project is an addition to improved road transport which has also opened many investment and business opportunities across the country and beyond.

Above all, Tanzania is on track towards the envisaged industrial and middle-income economy by 2025 for all this contributes to this end.

What is needed is to plan well what type of investment and business projects we want to engage in.