The Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, through its Tanzanian Railway Corporation (TRC), has launched the construction of the second phase of the Standard International Gauge Railway (SGR) that will link Dar es Salaam on the coast of the Indian Ocean with Mwanza on Lake Victoria, and Kigoma, on Lake Tanganyika. This second phase connects the cities of Kigoma and Tabora, joining with the first phase between Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, already under construction.
The first phase, called the Central Line, has a total length of 1,219 km and connects the old capital with Lake Victoria, passing through the cities of Pwani, Morogoro, Dodoma (current capital), Singid, and Tabora to Mwanza. The Government of Tanzania is providing the funding, with an investment of USD 6,380,000.
The second phase will expand the national rail network and connect Tanzania with neighbouring countries, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, extending the international network to approximately 2,000 km. The new line will accommodate passenger and freight trains, which will run at a maximum speed of 160 km/h and 120 km/h respectively, with alignment running parallel to the current metric width track.
This phase will be built through a “Design Build” contract, awarded to a consortium of Chinese companies, with an estimated investment of USD 3,000 million.
Consultancy services for construction supervision have been awarded to a consortium of four companies of various nationalities in which TYPSA participates. Services include detailed design review, including verification of environmental safeguards, construction supervision, including civil works, electrification and signalling and telecommunications systems, and construction contract management.
The total length is 506 km of international wide single track for mixed traffic, with 411 km of main line and 95 km of sidings. The scope is for one main station, six small stations, three medium stations and a sorting station. Supervision work covers all civil works, stations, electrification, signalling systems and telecommunications. The estimated duration of the design review is 18 months, overlapping with the 48 months of construction supervision and a 12-month guarantee period.
The overall objective of the project is to reduce transport costs, providing efficient transport and contributing to improved economic development. With this, the expected results are:
- Improvement of the connection of landlocked countries, in particular Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the world economy.
- Improvement of rail transport reliability, via the Central Line, in the interior of Tanzania.
- Continuation of the expansion of Tanzania’s standard-width electrified rail network, to achieve greater logistic efficiency in the country, due to its high capacity and reliability.
- Unlocking the vast domestic mineral resources and facilitating lower transport costs.
- Connecting the Central Line with the port of Kigoma to serve the countries with land connection, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, with possible service to Rwanda and Zambia via Lake Tanganyika.
