Turkish contractor Yapi Merkezi signed a $3 billion contract last month with the Ugandan government for the design, construction and procurement of a 273 km (169.6 mi) standard gauge railway line ) across the country, following the departure of a China-based contractor. in 2023.
Turkish contractor comes on board to replace China Harbor and Engineering Co. Ltd. (CHEC), which had initially been chosen for the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project, also known as the Eastern Route Railway, connecting Malaba, a shared border town. it unites the two neighboring countries of Uganda and Kenya, with the Ugandan capital of Kampala.
The Ugandan government initiated the project with the Chinese contractor in January 2023 for defaulting on its project funding obligations.
Yapi Merkezi said in a statement on October 14 that the contract “will be one of the largest projects ever signed by Turkish contractors abroad and is of strategic importance to both Uganda and East Africa.”
The project consists of a fully electrified rail link linking Uganda and Kenya with a carrying capacity of 25 million tonnes per year, and also includes the procurement of rolling stock. The plans call for a design speed of 120 kilometers per hour (75 mph) and include two main stations, four medium-sized stations, a sorting yard and three freight terminals according to Ugandan government reports.
The new railway line is part of Uganda’s planned 1,700 km (1,056 mi) regional electrified railway network, connecting to the already completed Mombasa-Naivasha section in Kenya and terminating at the port of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean.
The new single-track railway line has been designed according to China’s Class 1 railway standard with a cargo speed of 100 km/h (62 mph), a passenger speed of 120 km/h (74 mph ) and an axle load of 25 tons.
The line’s freight stock will be double-stack cars with 80-ton payloads and double-decker passenger coaches as preferred passenger stock.
A railway link in a larger chain
The Kenya/Uganda SGR project began in 2014 with construction of the $3.5 billion Phase 1 in Kenya between Mombasa and Nairobi, covering 472 km (293 mi) under a contract from China Road & Bridge Corporation. The 120 km (74 mi) SGR Phase 2A connecting Nairobi to Naivasha, Kenya was completed in 2019, and there are now plans to build the 262 km (163 km) Phase 2B connecting Naivasha to Kisumu, Kenya. and the 107 km (66 mi) Phase 2C from Kisumu to Malaba.
Uganda’s drive to complete the SGR project is largely fueled by the recent discovery of substantial amounts of oil and mineral reserves such as iron ore, phosphates, beryllium, chromium, copper and cobalt. The government is keen to use expanded rail transport to economically exploit these resources.
However, perhaps more significantly, Uganda’s SGR project is expected to provide much-needed rail access to the vast mineral resources mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including iron ore, aluminium, copper and cobalt, which until now could only be delivered to the global market through oversubscribed road networks.
The Ugandan government says the proposed SGR will “act as a transit route for minerals as it will be easier and shorter to reach markets in China, India, Europe and the Americas”.
