Transportation
Turkish Firm Yapi Merkazi Awarded $3B Uganda Rail Project
Rail line seen as key link for export channels in East Africa
Workers on an earlier phase of the larger regional standard-gauge railway project. Major rail conversions and upgrades underway across Uganda and Kenya will provide much needed freight rail access through East Africa.
Photo courtesy Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority
Turkish contractor Yapi Merkezi signed a $3-billion contract last month with the government of Uganda for the design, construction and procurement of a 273-km (169.6-mile) standard gauge railway line through the country, following the exit of a China-based contractor in 2023.
The Turkish contractor comes on board to replace China Harbor and Engineering Co. Ltd., which had initially been picked for the standard gauge railway project, also known as the Eastern Route Railway, which connects Malaba, a shared border town linking Uganda and Kenya, to the Ugandan capital of Kampala.
The Chinese contractor was kicked off the project by the Ugandan government in January 2023 for failing to fulfill its project financing obligations.
Yapi Merkezi said in a statement Oct. 14 that the contract “will be one of the largest projects ever signed by Turkish contractors abroad and holds strategic importance for both Uganda and East Africa.”
The project consists of a fully electrified rail connection linking Uganda and Kenya with a freight capacity of 25 million tons per year, and also includes procurement of rail vehicles. Plans call for a design speed of 120 kph (75 mph) and includes two major stations, four medium-sized stations, one marshaling yard and three freight terminals, according to Ugandan government reports.
The new rail line is part of Uganda's planned 1,700-km (1,056-mile) regional electric rail network, connecting in to the already completed Mombasa-Naivasha portion in Kenya and terminating at the Port of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean.
The new single-track rail line has been designed to the China Class 1 railway standard with a freight speed of 100 kph (62 mph), passenger speed of 120 kph (74 mph) and an axle load of 25 tons.
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The line's freight stock will be double-stacked cars with 80-ton payloads and double-decker passenger carriages as the preferred passenger stock.
One Rail Link in a Larger Chain
The Kenya/Uganda project started in 2014 with construction of the $3.5-billion Phase 1 in Kenya between Mombasa and Nairobi covering 472 km (293 miles) under a contract by China Road & Bridge Corp. The 120-km (74-mile) Phase 2A connecting Nairobi to Naivasha, Kenya, was completed in 2019, and plans are now in place to construct the 262-km (163-km) Phase 2B linking Naivasha to Kisumu, Kenya, and the 107-km (66-mile) Phase 2C from Kisumu to Malaba.
Uganda's eagerness to complete the project is largely fueled by the recent discovery of substantial quantities of oil as well as reserves in minerals such as iron ore, phosphates, beryllium, chromium, copper and cobalt. The government is keen on using expanded rail transportation to economically exploit these resources.
Perhaps more significantly however, Uganda's project is expected to provide much-needed rail access to the vast mineral resources being mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including iron ore, aluminum, copper and cobalt, which until now could only be delivered to the global market via oversubscribed road networks.
The Uganda government says the proposed rail project “will act as transit route for the minerals since it will be easier and shorter to reach the markets of China, India, Europe and the Americas.”
