Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — Standard Chartered Bank has arranged a $2.33 billion syndicated financing facility for the Standard Gauge Railway project in Tanzania, the bank said on Tuesday.
Okay News reports that the funding will finance two stretches of a planned 1,219 km railway line that links the commercial capital and port of Dar es Salaam and the lakeside city of Mwanza. Turkey‘s Yapi Merkezi and China‘s China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation will undertake the works, the bank’s statement said. Funding was secured from export credit agencies, commercial banks, and development finance institutions.
“The construction and modernisation of the Standard Gauge Railway will connect the port of Dar es Salaam to key growth corridors in western Tanzania and neighbouring states, providing a reliable mode of transportation for people and cargo,” the bank said. “The SGR will spur the economic development of the interior areas of Tanzania.”
Tanzania is aiming to construct a modern railway network of at least 2,561 km, connecting the East African country with landlocked neighbours Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
