Turkish construction firm Yapi Merkezi has signed a contract with Tanzania to build a 368-km section of the planned 1,219-km standard gauge railway linking Dar es Salaam, the commercial hub on the Indian Ocean, to the port city of Mwanza on the shores of Lake Victoria.
The rail section, which forms Lot 3 of Tanzania’s SGR project, will link Makutopora with Tabora and will have seven stations. The rail project is scheduled for completion in 46 months.
The contract, expected to cost $1.9 billion, will be financed through external loans.
The contract is one of three out of four contracts the company has so far won from the Tanzanian government. With talks currently ongoing, the company expects to sign the fourth contract soon for a 167-km section (Lot 4). Yapi Merkezi lost out to a Chinese consortium for Lot 5 of the SGR project.
Yapi Merkezi is currently undertaking the construction of Lot 1 and 2 — Dar es Salaam to Morogoro (95 per cent complete) and Morogoro to Makutupora (77 per cent complete), while the Chinese consortium is undertaking Lot 5 from Mwanza to Isaka (4 per cent done).
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