On Thursday, Tanzania will sign a $1.3 billion contract with two Chinese companies to build a section of the new standard-gauge railway network in the East African country.
The link covering approximately 340 kilometers (211 miles) in the northwest of the country will be financed by the government at a cost of 3,06 trillion shillings ($1,32 billion), Minister of Foreign Affairs Palamagamba Kabudi said.
He and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, who is scheduled to arrive for a two-day visit on Thursday, will witness the signing of the agreement, Kabudi said.
President John Magufuli, who secured a second five-year term at a general election in October, pledged to continue upgrading the country’s aging infrastructure at an estimated cost of $7.6 billion, including a 2,560-kilometer railway linking the port of Dar es Salaam to land-locked neighbors.
According to Bloomberg, in 2017 and 2019, Tanzania awarded two separate tenders to the Turkish company Yapi Merkezi Insaat VE Sanayi AS to construct more than 700 kilometers of high-speed rail from the Dar es Salaam commercial hub to Makutupora in the center of the country at a combined cost of more than $3 billion.
