Tanzania Signs $2.2bn Railway Deal With China 

Tanzania signed a $2.2-billion contract with a Chinese company to build the final section of a railway line aimed at linking the country’s main port with its neighbours. <br />The 2,561-kilometre line will link the Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam to Mwanza on Lake Victoria, with eventual spurs to Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. <br />President Samia Suluhu Hassan, says the construction of the final section of the Standard Gauge Railway from Tabora to Kigoma in western Tanzania would be completed in 2026, nine years after it began. <br />She says the new railway would reduce cargo transportation costs between the Dar es Salaam port and the DRC from a minimum of $6,000 per tonne to about $4,000 once it becomes fully operational.