Looking at the fact that Ethiopia has just launched a modern urban rail service cutting across Addis Ababa, I caught up with the feeling and indeed thoughts of the Standard gauge railway in East Africa. Many Ugandans were amazed during what was to be called the Standard gauge railway by the leaders of the East African Community. In the same way, many Ugandans were quite excited about the signing and promise of the commencement and construction of this railway. Some of the countries in the EAC have commenced the construction as some have not yet started. One of such nations is called Uganda. They came up with all amazing speeches and indeed on promises of its commencement this year (2015).

The major concern here is mostly in Uganda as Kenya has taken a few steps ahead and will be able to reach the agreed upon deadline. Besides that, Kenya has managed to purchase the train to cater effectively for the needs of their society and the East African community ambitions. In fact the construction of about 609km-long rail line started in October 2013 and is expected to be completed by December 2017. With this in mind; it’s expected to create 60 new jobs for a Kilometer of the rail line or with an estimate of 30,000 jobs are expected to be created during the construction. This in turn reduces unemployment to the youth engrained in deer poverty planning to waste time in sports betting even though the government is milking 15% of value added tax (VAT)!

Further to the Kenya storyline, the Mombasa-Nairobi phase of the railway is estimated to cost US$3.8 billion. Such an amount of money was provided by China’s Exim Bank worthy 90% of the project with the remaining 10% contributed by the Kenyan Government. This is very clear and work has started while on the contrary; Uganda also got the money approximately US$ 3.3bn from the same bank to construct the connection of Kampala through Malaba to Nimule in South Sudan as well as connecting to Rwanda as agreed upon in the East African Community.  But still nothing is done in Uganda, yet time is running. What needs to be understood here is that money received in loans with time will be obliged to be paid back inclusive of the interest on top of it.

Yes, there was the signing of contracts by the president in Beijing, China in the state Auditorium with the Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) agreement, China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (CHEC) and also the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) in April 2015. Later China also approved to finance the 476 km rail line, inclusive of detailed designs of the railway. Further to the agreements, the CHEC was contracted to construct the 926.4km Eastern and Northern Line. Also, the western and southwestern line One of the unanswered questions therefore is when will this work start? What happened then so as we get the lofty ambitions of the standard gauge railway in Uganda? As per the Media Centre communication on 8th October 2014 and above, UPDF brigade was to help in construction.

The real deal here is very simple as in most cases transportation problems will be solved as Uganda’s heavy cargoes from the ports is usually transported via road, which brings about several challenges to especially the business community. Not only that but also the unemployment levels amongst the youths can be reduced as well as boosting industrialization. For the EAC; this railway construction would encourage not only business in East Africa but as well foster cooperation, boost domestic economies and encourage mobility of East Africans as well.

Source: News 360

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