A new $900 million agreement between Burundi and Tanzania
RegionWeek Newsletter Vol VI, Issue #202 | Monday, January 17th, 2022
This is RegionWeek Newsletter, the content targets Business leaders, Decision-makers, and Young professionals with interests in Burundi and East Africa. Subscribe to stay productive, and competitive in a pandemic and disrupted season.
Dear readers,
Tanzania and Burundi have signed an agreement to build a $900 million railway that will connect the neighboring East African nations, reports Bloomberg.
The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding to construct a 282-kilometer (175-mile) line from the western Tanzanian town of Uvinza to Burundi’s capital Gitega. Finance and transport ministers from the two countries signed the deal in the western Tanzanian town of Kigoma on Sunday, Tanzania’s finance ministry said in a statement.
Tanzania, which wants to become a regional trade and transport hub, is building a standard gauge railway line to connect the port of Dar es Salaam to landlocked neighbors, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The two governments will jointly seek financing for the railway, Tanzania Finance Minister Mwigulu Nchemba said, adding that the final cost “will likely not exceed $900 million.” He didn’t provide details on the source of financing
RegionWeek is an Independent media project based in Burundi that needs resources to operate at its full potential. You can contribute now, and help the RegionWeek team to publish consistently. Click this link.
According to Agence Routiere du Burundi, the railway line from Musongati will ease the exportation of Nickel from Musongati via Uvinza to join the Tanzania central line to the Port of Dar es Salaam as a gateway to the foreign markets in the world.
The railway line will be mainly in Tanzania about 150Kms and Makamba region 50Kms with the total distance being about 200Kms built to preferably AREMA latest standard (inter-operability) mainly for freight (mining inputs/outputs, agricultural inputs/outputs, and other freight including passenger) and allow for the following maximum speed:
120 km/h for design train speed for passengers and /or 80 km/h for freight trains.
Further to the mining inputs and outputs, the line will link and give Burundi and neighboring DRC access to the port of Dar es Salaam and facilitate their imports and exports.
The existing Railway line from Dar es Salaam to Uvinza( at present is a one-meter gauge) and the construction of a new Railway line Uvinza to Musongati will be a standard gauge and will create the most efficient transport route to Musongati between the Port of Dar es Salaam and Burundi.
The Railway Project area will be mainly in the Kigoma region (Tanzania) about 150 Km and Makamba region (Burundi) about 50 Km with the total distance being about 200 km built preferably to AREMA latest standards (inter-operability) mainly for freight
Thanks for reading!
I would like to invite you to our Free Weekly Briefing Zoom Session that we have every Tuesday. (Time: Jan 18, 2022 03:00 PM Africa/Bujumbura)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83899798706?pwd=bVRhT28zcGJ0WkxFM2xhME8yRXZIQT09
Meeting ID: 838 9979 8706 Passcode: 351675
Fabrice Iranzi, Editor in Chief | RegionWeek.com
This is the free briefing version. To participate and get to the Zoom Briefing session, you need to join our Premium member Club. (Please contact +25771939153, WhatsApp, Telegram).
The Zoom Briefing session is an opportunity to ask questions about news stories covered by RegionWeek & Partners and to hear from experts on various topics of Interest for Burundi and East Africa.