Uganda seals deal to rehabilitate Malaba-Kampala Railway

Uganda signed a $46.5 million deal with a Chinese firm on Tuesday to rehabilitate its 260-kilometer railway line between its border with Kenya at Malaba town and its capital, Kampala, in less than 12 months. This comes as Uganda and Kenya join forces to push the rehabilitation and seamless connection of the old meter gauge railway line, which is narrower than standard gauge railway, as Kenya continues revamping its meter gauge railway line from Naivasha to Malaba.

According to a report by Uganda's Parliament Committee on National Economy presented to parliament last week by Syda Bbumba, the committee's chairwoman, the Ugandan government also plans to purchase and rehabilitate coaches, wagons and locomotives, create a railway training school to equip Uganda Railway Corporation management and staff it with modern railway management skills and stock spare parts.

"If the meter gauge railway project is implemented, the cost of transport by rail will improve from the current average of $ 0.09 - $ 0.13 per net ton-kilometer, to $ 0.05, hence reducing the cost of doing business," Bbumba said.

According to the committee report, implementation of the railway will decrease commuters' travel time within a 12 kilometer distance from two hours to 20 minutes, and cargo per month will improve from 20,000 tons to 300,000 tons.

According to local media reports, James Macharia, Kenya's Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet secretary, revealed last week that Kenya was part of the concessions talks between China Road and Bridge Corporation and the Uganda Railways Corporation to have the Chinese firm rehabilitate the Malaba-Kampala railways line.

Macharia who made the remarks while accompanying Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta to Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni's swearing-in last week, added that the idea is to make sure there is a seamless operation of the meter gauge railway line from Naivasha in Kenya all the way to Kampala, Uganda.

Officials had contracted the Chinese corporation to rehabilitate the Naivasha to Malaba line and "the progress is good, so far. So we felt for it to make sense, Uganda had to also start doing the same for their line to make this project complete," Macharia said, adding the work is set to be completed in the shortest time possible.

The Chinese contractor began the rehabilitation of the 460 km Naivasha-Malaba railway line in January this year, which it expects to be ready by the end of this year. Upon completion of repairs on the old line, it will then link to the Standard Gauge Railway at Naivasha. This will enable seamless transport of cargo containers from Mombasa to Naivasha and onward to the Malaba border into Uganda.

Once rehabilitated, the line between Malaba and Kampala is expected to play a key role as an important route for Uganda's exports through the port of Mombasa in Kenya since Uganda is a landlocked country. In addition, the refurbished railway line will go a long way in diverting cargo from road to rail, which is cheaper, more environmentally friendly and will ease pressure on the road network, reducing road maintenance costs.