Writes Leo Odera Omolo.
PLANS are in advance state for the two Eastern African nations of Tanzania and Uganda to establish a multi billion dollars joint venture to develop a new railway line and ports on Lake Victoria to cope up with increased trade from the East African hinterland.
It is moderately estimated that the plan would cost close to USD 2.7 billion.And it will involve the construction of the new 800 kilometers long railway line that will link a proposed deep water port at Mwambani Bay in Tanga and ends up in Arusha nearly 400 kilometers away from Lake Victoria and a new extension will be needed to link it up with the port of Musoma about 400 kilometers to the west.
Te rail line will link up with the port of Musoma with onward connection to Port Bell in Kampala and Juba in South Sudan.
The extension is expected to pass through the world famous Serengeti National Game Park, something which the environmentalists, conservationists had vehemently opposed to arguing that with noisy trains passing through the wild animal sanctuary something which would not augur well. This is what had caused the plan being shelved during the reign of the late President Julius Kambarage Nyerere when the idea was first muted in the late 1980s.
The officials of the two countries have said the project is provisionally estimated to cost USD 2.7 billion, out of which USD 1.9 billion is for the construction of the railway line, USD 672.6 million for the development of Mwambani Port and USD 72. Million for the development of Musoma dock.
In a well researched article appearing in its business page, the EASTAFRICAN weekly quoted the Tanzanian Minister for Transport Omar Nundu as saying that the partnership plan includes rehabilitation and upgrading of the Port Bell pier and the construction of a new Kampala inland port in Uganda.
The Minister further explained that the plan will also see Tanga and Musoma ports dedicated to handling cargo destined for Uganda and Southern Sudan.
The cost of transporting goods in the region could reduce significantly in the next five years as another EAC partner Kenya too plans a new railway connecting the port of Mombasa to Kampala.
In the joint venture, Tanzania and Uganda are seeking USD 250 million fresh capitals to upgrade a separate jointly owned 100 year old imperial gauge rail line built during the colonial era.
A 25 year concessional deal signed in 2006 with Rift Valley Railway {RVR} consortium has so far failed to revamp the ailing railway network. This consortium is made up of o South African Sheltam Trade, Mirambo Holdings and Primefuesl Ltd. Others partners include Kenyan private equity firm Trans-Century and two other investors- Kenya’s Centum Investment Ltd and Babcock and Brown of Australia. And last week Trans-Century disclosed it plans to inject USD 300 million into RVR.
The funds to be disbursed in the next five years will be spent on modernizing the Kenya-Uganda Railway in which the private equity firm holds a principle interest of 34 per cent.
“The transport division is focused on the turnaround of the Rift Valley Railway and recapitalization of the railway line,” said Trans-0Century CEO Gachao Kiuna.
While cargo volume at the Kenyan port of Mombasa has grown to over 19 million tones as at the end of last year from seven million in 1980s, volume transported by RVR have declined from 4.8 tones to 1.5 million tones in the same period.
The proposed new railway will be an important link between ports in Kenya and Tanzania and the neighboring countries of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.
According to information attributed to Tanzanian Transport Minister Omar Nundu, rehabilitation of wagon ferries and building of a new ship to service Lake Victoria are also among projects stipulated in the joint plan.
President Museveni of Uganda has repeatedly said that the Musoma was “lifeline” of the Uganda of his dreams, adding that freight will be conveyed from Musoma dock by ferry to Port Bell pier – about 350 kilometers inside Uganda. A rail connection runs via Tororo to Gulu – nearly 600 kilometers on the Pakwach branch. North Gulu, a new line of roughly 250 kilometers will have to be constructed to Juba, and a further 550 kilometers to the Wau railhead in Southern Sudan.
The proposals arise from the continued difficulties with getting freight from the port of Mombasa to Uganda, and to Southern Sudan.
The cost of Kenyan route are said to be prohibitive and there are serious delays. The Dar Es Salaam port has its own logistics problems too. Figures made available shows the Dar Es Salaam dock accounts for only one per cent of all trade from Uganda with 99 per cent passing through the Kenyan port o Mombasa.
However, the Ugandan business community is of the opinion that Dar and Kampala will have to make some concessions to promote the route.
“To start with, Dar Es Salaam need to talks with Kampala not to charge tax freight when we use the Central Corridor. This will be a good enticement” says Busingye Rwabogo, the Mukwano Industries operations general manager.
With a rated capacity for 4.1 million tones of dry cargo,6 million tones of bulk liquids, 3.1 tones of general cargo and a million cargo of containerized traffic, the port of Dar Es Salaam is said to be severely stretched.
Dar Port handles about 95 per cent f Tanzania’s international trade in addition to serving neighboring landlocked countries of Malawi, Zambia,Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo {DRC}.Development at the port of Tanga with current annual handling of 500,000 tons will reduce the load on Dar Es Salaam port meaningfully.
Ends