Uganda is set to receive $301 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to overhaul the Kampala-Malaba Meter Gauge Railway (MGR).
The project is expected to directly benefit nearly 1.2 million people, about 40 percent of them women.
The railway line is part of the East African Community’s Northern Corridor linking the capital, Kampala, to Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa.
According to the AfDB, the East African Community Railway Rehabilitation Support Project will bolster rail services and lower transportation costs in the region.
The financing consists of loans and grants from the bank and its concessional lending window, the African Development Fund (ADF).
‘The works entail the immediate rehabilitation of 265 km of MGR tracks between Malaba and Mukono, including the line to Jinja Pier and Port Bell on Lake Victoria’, an AfDB statement read.
‘The project incorporates training and skills development for the railway workforce; it also will integrate nature-based solutions, including tree planting, to enhance the climate resilience of the tracks’.
The AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina, said, ‘Railway lines are critical to opening up the heartland of Africa, where there is immense agricultural and economic potential’.
According to him, rail tracks would also be instrumental in linking rural-based Special Agricultural Processing Zones, which the bank is promoting.
‘Railway lines should not simply connect ports to mines’, he added.
Uganda’s railway system has been a major player in the country’s development and trade promotion since its independence.
Photo source: AfDB
