Uganda and Yapi Merkezi of Turkey sign a deal to build a train line

A Ugandan official said on Monday that the government and the Turkish building company Yapi Merkezi signed a deal to build a 272-kilometer (169-mile) section of railway. The goal is to increase trade in the area.

Perez Wamburu, who is in charge of the Standard Gauge Railway project in Uganda, said that the agreement was for the first part of a planned 1,700 km electric train line. This part would cost 2.7 billion euros ($3 billion).

Wamburu said that work on it will begin in November.

Bageya Waiswa, permanent secretary of Uganda’s works ministry, said at the signing event that the project would boost trade and lower transportation costs.

He said that Uganda will pay for the project with its own money and loans from export credit agencies. The project will take 48 months to finish after it starts.

The train section will go from Kampala, which is the capital, to Malaba, which is on the border with Kenya. It will connect Uganda’s landlocked country to Kenya’s rail network and then to Mombasa, which is a seaport on the Indian Ocean.

In 2015, Uganda made a deal with the China Harbour and Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) to carry out the project as long as the company helped the Chinese government give money for the train.

Uganda ended the deal with Yapi Merkezi last year after years of talks that didn’t lead anywhere. Yapi Merkezi is working on a similar project in neighboring Tanzania.

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