Works, Transport and Communication Minister Isack Kamwelwe and his Rwandan counterpart Claver Gatete are meeting in Kigali over the Isaka-Kigali Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project execution.
The meeting comes after the weekend sessions by senior technocrats from both countries who sought to explore the remaining details related to the project. This is the ministers’ second meeting within two months, after the first in Dar es Salaam last October.
Mr Gatete appreciated Engineer Kamwelwe, saying “Your presence in Kigali shows the serious commitment by the government of Tanzania on the project.” He added, “We are meeting now to ensure we have a clear road-map on the project implementation.
We will discuss many issues in technical details and chart out the whole timeline.” The October meeting, among other things, directed the Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) and Rwanda Transport Development Agency (RTDA) to mobilise necessary funds for payment of the upcoming invoices from consultants working on the project. Initial estimates suggest that the 521-kilometre Isaka- Kigali SGR project will cost 2.5 billion US dollars.
In Tanzania, construction of the country’s historic SGR is gaining momentum, with the contractor currently laying the railway tracks, thanks to the arrival of the first consignment of 7,250 tonnes of rail.
The government has as well revealed that it has opened tenders for procurement of freight wagons and locomotives for the envisaged electric train.
In April last year, President John Magufuli laid the foundation stone for the construction of the first historic railway for the electric train in East and Central Africa, from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro.