The GOVERNMENTS of Tanzania and Burundi have signed an agreement to build the Modern Railway (SGR) from Uvinza to Gitega through the nickel mines in Burundi where an individual will build the railway due to the countries lack of funds at the moment.

This was stated by President Samia Suluhu Hassan Ikulu, Dar es Salaam yesterday during the signing ceremony of the contract for the construction of the Modern Railway (SGR) Phase II, the sixth section from Tabora to Kigoma with a length of 506 kilometers.

President Samia said that the railway must be built because Msongati has a large load of minerals whose transportation will depend on the railway.

"I want to give you comforting news that someone has already come forward who wants to build with his own money, which is not a loan, and then we will agree on the transportation of his property when he is transporting it," he said.

He said at any time the contract for the construction of the railway from Uvinza to Msongati on nickel will be signed by the volunteer because the goal is to connect Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The Director General of the Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC), Masanja Kadogosa, said the signing of the construction of the section of the railway from Tabora to Kigoma concludes the construction of the central railway at the SGR level from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza and from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma with a total of 2,102 kilometers and the next construction will be the branches of the railway.

Kadogosa said that the 2,102 kilometers make Tanzania the country with the construction of a long SGR railway in Africa and added that all the signed contracts for the construction of the SGR do not have price changes due to changes in the prices of construction products.

"When we started construction, we had an estimate to build one kilometer for 4.46 million US dollars, but so far we have built for 4.06 million US dollars, so all our construction so far is below the engineering estimate of one billion dollars," he said.

He said that among the 22 countries that are implementing SGR projects, 17 countries are from Africa and the country that has built 500 kilometers of electricity that is not SGR is building for 6.218 million dollars per kilometer, so the cost of constructing SGR for Tanzania is cheap.

Regarding the purchase of tools, Kadogosa said the purchase, including 59 wagons, is progressing well and 14 of them have already arrived in the country, another 30 wagons and two used heads will arrive in March or April next year.

He also said that there are 17 heads from South Korea that will begin to enter in June next year, 10 sets of modern trains and two of them will enter in June, 1,430 freight wagons from China will begin to enter in September next year and make all those investments worth US Dollars 557.731 million equal to Sh 1.29 trillion.

The Minister of Construction and Transport, Professor Makame Mbarawa, said the construction and transport sector is the backbone of Tanzanians' lives.

The Speaker of Parliament, Dr. Tulia Ackson, asked the government after completing the construction of the SGR, to see how to improve other areas with old railways that are also in the SGR.

The Secretary General of Transport, Gabriel Migire said that of all the cargo that passes through the Port of Dar es Salaam, 39 percent is the cargo of the DRC and when the construction of the SGR is completed, the cargo will increase by more than 50 percent but it will also support the production of 150 million tons of nickel in Burundi .

The Ambassador of Tanzania in Burundi, Jilly Maleko, said the SGR to Msongati in Burundi will support the transportation of 600,000 tons of pure nickel per year to be transported through the Port of Dar es Salaam and the level of trade between Tanzania and Burundi in the period of 2019/2020 was between of 50 to 80 billion dollars.

The director of the Chinese company CCECC, Zhang Junle, which will build the Tabora to Kigoma railway in collaboration with the CRCC Company, said they will complete the project on time and to the intended standards.

In addition, Kadogosa said that the construction of SGR from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro has reached 97.67 percent and other regions and their percentages in brackets are Morogoro-Makutupora (91.32), Makutupora-Tabora (3.26), Tabora-Isaka (0.49) and Isaka-Mwanza 19.70 percent.