In an effort to improve infrastructure, Tanzania begins a $3.1 billion railway

In an effort to enhance transportation infrastructure, Tanzania unveiled a 541-kilometer contemporary standard gauge railway on Thursday that connects its economic and administrative capitals. The railway was constructed by a Turkish company.

The construction of roads, railroads, and bridges is a top priority for African governments, but some of the loans obtained from China and other nations to finance this infrastructure-building have drawn criticism for burdening future generations with debt.

At a ceremony in the commercial hub of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan officially opened the electric train services. He then boarded a train to travel the four hours to the administrative center of Dodoma.

Turkey’s Yapi Merkezi developed the $3.1 billion line. The two segments that were unveiled on Thursday are a part of a 2,561-kilometer rail network that, when finished, should increase regional and local trade.

In order to partially finance the stretch that was inaugurated on Thursday, Tanzania and Standard Chartered Bank Tanzania inked a $1.46 billion financing arrangement in 2020.

“We will keep building the railway to Kigoma until we establish connections with neighboring countries, so that we can enhance our business operations,” Hassan declared to jubilant locals at a train station on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam.

Additionally, Hassan’s administration is constructing a rail network that will lead to the port city of Mwanza on Lake Victoria and is getting ready to begin building a second line that would connect Kigoma in the west with Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

She declared, “This railway is going to liberate our businesses,” during a visit in Morogoro, a city in eastern Tanzania.

The Tanzanian finance ministry states that once the Burundi link is up and running, the two countries want to ship three million tons of minerals each year, including nickel, to the port in Dar es Salaam.

($1 equals 2,695,0000 shillings in Tanzania)