Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi Seek $3.5 Billion for Rail Line

Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi plan to raise $3.5 billion to build a regional railway line aimed at boosting investment in the region, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said.
“We are ready to borrow, preferably from concessional sources,” he said in a speech e-mailed to reporters. “We are ready to go into partnership with private companies that can raise the money for construction of the railway.”
The East African countries want the project either to be on a build-operate-transfer basis or a joint venture, he said.
Tanzania’s main port of Dar es Salaam port is closer to the Indian Ocean for Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo than the Kenyan port of Mombasa. About 94 percent of cargo to Burundi, 57 percent to Rwanda and 67 percent of exports from Rwanda pass through the port of Dar es Salaam, said Kikwete. Cargo is currently trucked by road.
The railway would attract investment into industries including nickel mining in Burundi and Tanzania, Kikwete said. Feasibility studies for a section of the railway plan connecting Tanzania to Rwanda, and then to Burundi, and rehabilitating part of the line from Dar es Salaam port have already been completed.
The studies were funded by African Development Bank, the U.S. government, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC, according to Kikwete’s speech.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Malingha Doya in Dar es Salaam via Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.