Uganda’s government and Turkish construction company Yapi Merkezi have signed a contract to build a 272-kilometer railway stretch

Uganda’s government and Turkish construction company Yapi Merkezi have signed a contract to build a 272-kilometer railway stretch, with the aim of boosting regional trade, a Ugandan official said on Monday. Uganda Standard Railway project coordinator Perez Wamburu said the deal was for the first section of a planned 1,700 km electric railway line and that the segment would cost 2.7 billion euros ($3 billion). Its construction will begin in November, Wamburu said. The project will increase trade and reduce transport costs, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Uganda Bageya Waiswa said at the signing ceremony. He said Uganda will use its own funds and loans from export credit organizations to finance the project, which will take 48 months to complete once started. The rail section will run from the capital Kampala to Malaba on the Kenyan border, connecting landlocked Uganda to its neighbor’s rail network and the Indian Ocean seaport of Mombasa.