A drive to improve Tanzania’s transport infrastructure is gathering momentum, with billions of dollars of funding being put towards the development of the country’s rail network. The initiative includes both an upgrade to existing tracks and new rail lines that will be laid along the country’s central transport corridor and beyond, with work slated to begin before the end of the current fiscal year in June.
Once completed, the project will provide Tanzania with an extensive standard-gauge railway network, which will not only reduce costs and delays for internal trade, but also have a similar impact on shipments between the Port of Dar es Salaam and neighbouring countries, such as Zambia, Burundi and Rwanda. Developments will be largely financed by China’s Exim Bank, after the government signed a memorandum of understanding with the lender for the $7.6bn Central Corridor Railway (CCR) project, which will modernise 2190 km of the country’s existing rail network.
The route is an essential component of Tanzania’s main freight and passenger transport backbone, forming part of the Central Corridor of East and Central Eastern Africa, which connects the Port of Dar es Salaam by road, rail and inland waterways to Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
