Construction work on the Dar es Salaam-Morogoro standard gauge railway(SGR) line is on the right track, Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) executive director, Mr Masanja Kadogosa has announced.
“We are making good progress. Dar es Salaam to Morogoro has reached 42 per cent while construction of the Makutupora-Tabora section stands at six per cent,” said Mr Kadogosa.
In 2016, Tanzania chose Portuguese-Turkish joint venture of Yapi Merkezi and Mota Engil to build the $1.2 billion first phase, the longest section of the project the longest section of the project, which has been divided into four phases.
The three remaining sections are Makutupora-Tabora (294 km), Tabora-Isaka (133 km) and Isaka-Mwanza (248 km).
The line is expected to be electric accommodating speeds of up to 160 kilometres per hour for passenger trains and 120 kilometres per hour for cargo trains.
Completion of the railway line has been slated for November 1, this year.
The country plans to spend $14.2 billion over the next five years to build the 2,561 kilometre-SGR connecting its main port of Dar es Salaam to land-locked neighbours namelythe Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.
The SGR line will run parallel to the Central Railway Line built by Germans in 1905 from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma, then British government from Tabora to Mwanza from 1923 to 1928, covering some 427km.