Coal imports from Tanzania to Uganda will be boosted by the arrival of the new railway line currently in the planning stages by Kenyan and Chinese authorities.

China plan to invest $20 billion in Africa over the next three years with this rail deal, which is valued at $2.6 billion being part of the investment.

Kenya secretly signed with a Chinese construction company, China Roads and Bridges Company, to build a new standard gauge railway line between Mombasa and Nairobi to be completed in five years.

According to information from the Chinese commercial office in Kampala, the rail will facilitate importation of coal from Tanzania to boost steelmaking by private Chinese firms. Tanzania, which boasts of an estimated two billion tons of coal, recently signed a $3 billion deal with China’s Sichuan Hongda with Tanzania to mine coal and iron ore in the resource-rich East African country.