President Museveni has said the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line will boost Uganda’s tourism and trade.
Speaking at the commissioning of the project works in Tororo on Thursday, the President highlighted that SGR is not just a milestone in Uganda’s history of transportation infrastructure but a significant moment in our journey towards economy transformation, improving regional integration and advancing the aspirations of the people .
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“Poor infrastructure is estimated to lower trade volumes by 40 per cent in Africa, thus its share in global trade is below five per cent and intra-African trade is below 15 per cent, while in other continents it is between 40 to 60 per cent,” he said.
“Most of our roads are ruined by heavy truck loads thus railway transport is highly recommended to preserve them. Therefore, the construction of SGR will help to protect our roads,” he added.
The SGR, once complete, will have the capacity to transport 1000 tonnes of cargo at once and create more than one million jobs. Once complete, the SGR will reduce travel time from Mombasa to Kampala to 1 day from current 14 days.
President Museveni directed the contractor to make sure they finish the project within 48 months.
The President also said that the project will improve the tourism sector, stimulate trade relations between Tanzania and its neighbors, and other economic sectors.
“Poor infrastructure is estimated to lower trade volumes by 40 per cent in Africa, thus its share in global trade is below five per cent and intra-African trade is below 15 per cent, while in other continents it is between 40 to 60 per cent,” the President noted.
He said the government is also considering constructing airports in every national game park to be used by tourists to reduce crowding on the roads and to leave the roads mainly for passengers.
The President said once the country starts getting money from the oil, more roads and railway lines will be constructed and extended.
Minister of Works and Transport, Gen Edward Katumba Wamala said the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway is meant to foster connection of capital cities of all partner states to Mombasa, which is the main port.
This will be the first section of a planned 1,700 km electric rail line and would cost 2.7 billion Euros (3 billion Dollars) or about 10.8 trillion Shillings.
The project will be funded by the government and funds from credit organisations to finance the project, which will take 48 months to complete once started. Citibank is the lead arranger for the syndicated credit facility.
The minister said the infrastructure is expected to reduce the cost of transporting a cargo container on the road from Mombasa once the SGR line is complete.
“This will lower the cost of transport, and I think this is good news to the ears of traders. Therefore, I want to appeal to our leaders to support the construction so that the contractor doesn’t have any excuses for delaying the construction,” he said.
Yapi Merkezi, the contractor, says the railway line will have the capacity to move 25 million tons of cargo per year.
Erden Arıoğlu, the Vice Chairman of the company pledged to meet the requirements of the deal, including timeliness, transparency and quality.
This was also stressed by the Turkish Ambassador to Uganda, Mehmet Fatih AK, as important for the relationship between Uganda and Turkey. The ambassador said he was confident the contractor would use the wide experience in Railway construction in more than 100 countries.
