TANZANIA’s government has awarded a contract for the construction of 205 kilometers of Tanzania’s proposed standard gauge railway to Yapi Merkez Insaat Ve Sanayi (YMIVS), Turkey, and Mota-Engil, Portugal.
The 1.2-billion-U.S. dollar contract is part of the 1216 kilometers stretch that will eventually link Dar es Salaam with the rest of the country as well as Rwanda and Burundi.
The government had already set aside 500 million U.S. dollars for the project according to Makame Mbarawa, Minister of Works, Transport and Communication of Tanzanian and the minister also said the government expects to secure soft loans from development partners and financial investors for the project. In July 2016, the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) agreed to provide 7.6 billion U.S. dollars to Tanzania to build around 2200 kilometers of standard gauge railway.
The Turkish and Portuguese firms beat 39 other bidders to win the tender according to Tanzania’s infrastructure manager Railway Assets Holding Company (Rahco) acting director-general Masanja Kadogosa.
Kadgosa also said that the 160km/h standard gauge railway will be able to handle 17 million tonnes per annum, running parallel to the existing central line.
Tenders for the rest of the project will be opened in April this year, comprising the Morogoro - Makutupora (336 kilometers), Makutupora - Tabora (294 kilometers), Tabora - Isaka (133 kilometers), and Isaka - Mwanza (248 kilometers) sections.
(Source: China International Contractors Association)
A single purchase
