A proposed 476km single gauge railway line that will connect Kampala via Malaba in Eastern Uganda to Nimule in South Sudan – at a cost of $3.2 billion – will receive financial backing from China.

Official acceptance of the Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) contract, handled by China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (CHEC), was signed in Uganda last week.

One of the bottlenecks to Africa’s economic development is high transport costs because of the absence of efficient railway transport. Currently, transporting heavy cargo from ports like Mombasa in Tanzania is neither cheap nor efficient. It is hoped that construction of the eastern and northern standard gauge railway line will begin to address the problem.

“We are trying to rectify this. Our government, with the support of the Chinese government, is helping build an efficient railway system in Uganda and for the region,” commented Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni.

The project has been agreed to by East African states Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda as well as South Sudan as an essential infrastructure project for the Northern Corridor. On completion, the new line will connect Mombasa to Malaba (with a branch line to Kisumu City) then travel onward to Kampala, Kigali (with a branch line to Kasese town) and Juba (with a branch line to Pakwach town).