Stanley Sendegeya, the managing director of Uganda Railways Corporation (URC), says the East African country needs over $976 million to finance the rehabilitation of major sections of its century-old metre gauge railway.
The project is expected to be completed by 2026.
The Ugandan government had initially planned to build a new $2.3 billion standard gauge railway project but decided to repair the old rail lines after the project fell through in 2017.
Sendegeya said the $976 million, once secured, would be used to upgrade existing railway lines, construct damaged ones, purchase locomotives, wagons and engines.
Among the routes earmarked for rehabilitation is the busy Kampala-Malaba line which connects the capital city with Kenya at Malaba border crossing and will cost up to $402 million to rehabilitate.
Meanwhile, the Ugandan government has secured $57.3 million loan from the European Union to upgrade and reconstruct the Tororo-Gulu line which hasn’t been in use for decades. This line offers better access to South Sudan, with goods collected at the logistics hub in Gulu which together with the railway line are currently under construction.
Other sections earmarked for either construction or rehabilitation are the Gulu-Pakwach line which will connect to the country’s oil-rich region and to the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The other line is the Kampala-Kasese, which will connect to the mineral rich Rwenzori area and parts of western DR Congo, to be rehabilitated at a cost of $610 million.
The project also seeks to extend passenger services after the acquisition of new coaches to two different routes away from the single one, which is currently running.
“In the next five years, we expect those places to be serviced by the metre gauge railway as long as the financing is secured,” Mr Sendegeya told The EastAfrican.