Two Chinese companies have won the tender to construct a 282-kilometre standard-gauge railway line between Tanzania and Burundi.
Tanzanian Transport Minister, Makame Mbarawa, announced the winning bidders – China Railway Engineering Group Ltd and China Railway Engineering Design and Consulting Group – during the contract signing ceremony recently.
The African Development Bank will finance the project to build the railway line, which will connect to the standard-gauge railway that is already under construction for the state-owned Tanzania Railway Corporation.
The railway line will link Dar es Salaam with Port Mwanza on Lake Victoria and Port Kigoma (Ujiji) on Lake Tanganyika, closely following the route of the existing metre-gauge railway.
It has been forecast that the railway line to Burundi will carry three million tonnes of minerals, including nickel used in the battery industry, every year.
Chinese firms have constructed a significant portion of Africa’s rail and road projects in recent decades, with its banks approving loans of USD 4.61 billion for projects in 2024 alone.
