By Chris Muhizi for MCN.
According to a railway spokesperson, Uganda has started rehabilitating a section of a century-old, British-built railway line that is intended to lower the cost of moving commodities to the country’s north, South Sudan, and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
John Linnon Sengendo, spokesman for the state-run Uganda Railways Corporation (URC), told Reuters that the company’s goal is to switch all long-distance bulk freight transit from roads to rail in a few years because rail is more affordable in terms of both time and cost.
When plans to construct a separate modern standard gauge railway (SGR) failed to obtain funding from China, Uganda made the decision to upgrade the existing network.
Part of the East Africa rail system, the line has been idle for around 40 years and runs from Mombasa, Kenya’s port on the Indian Ocean. Around the turn of the 20th century, it was constructed by the past colonial power of Kenya and Uganda, Britain.
In an effort to modernize Uganda’s railway system, which fell into disrepair during the nation’s economic collapse in the 1970s and early 1980s, the European Union supported the building of the Gulu hub, which will be finished in late 2021.
According to Ugandan officials, once the link is repaired, train will take the place of trucks in the transportation of goods in transit to South Sudan and the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The transport ministries of Kenya and Uganda said this week that they will speed up another proposal to construct a standard gauge railroad connecting Naivasha, Kenya, and Kampala, the capital of Uganda.
Sengendo added that the old line would be repaired over the course of two years at a cost of 200 billion shillings ($55.48 million), which would be covered by the Ugandan government.
The 382 km (237 mile) portion of the line that has to be rebuilt connects Tororo town in eastern Uganda, close to the Kenyan border, and ends at a logistical hub in Gulu in northern Uganda, close to the South Sudan border.