The Government of Uganda will soon send its top Engineers to Ankara, Turkey to discuss a contract for the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) with Yapi Merkezi, a Turkish firm.
This development comes against the backdrop of a creeping collapse of Uganda’s contract with a Chinese firm, in which the former wrote to the latter to cancel a $2.2 billion SGR railway line building contract, citing eight years of non-execution.
The request, for which experts from China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) are yet to respond to, seeks to terminate an eight year old $2.2 billion Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) deal.
According to a source from the Ugandan side, a team of Ugandan engineers will waste no time, but fly to Turkey to do due diligence and sign a contract with Yapi Merkezi Construction Company, as soon as they get a positive response from CHEC.
This marks a major shift in strategy as Uganda eyes the Turkish firm for her infrastructural projects, most of which have been undertaken by Chinese construction firms. The cancellation of the CHEC contract is likely to cost the nation hugely.
Uganda has already put in place a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Yapi Merkezi, even though the cancellation of the CHEC contract is still pending.
The Turkish construction company is expected to submit a response to Uganda’s humble request for a construction proposal within the next few weeks, opening an avenue for procurement of construction tools and equipment.
Note has to be taken that Turkey’s Yapi Merkezi is credited for closely collaborating with Mota Engil Africa from Portugal to complete phase 1 of the new Dar es salaam – Morogoro (300 km) line.
The railway line whose costruction was officiated on April 12th 2017, and completed in April 2022 is currently in the testing phase.
SGR Project Coordinator Eng Perez Wamburu confirmed reports that they have signed an (MoU) with Turkish firm Yapi Merkezi according to The East African.
“From the time of our last financing submission in February 2021, we have heard only silence. After submission, we waited for a few months, it was silence, and up to now, it’s still silent from Exim Bank,” Eng Perez Wamburu revealed.
According to the agreement signed with the Chinese firm in 2015, construction of the country’s first phase of standard gauge railway (SGR), a 273 km line was to take centre stage from Malaba to Kampala. However eight years down the road, nothing has been done.
It should be noted that whereas Tanzania and Kenya have made tremendous progress in constructing their own parts of SGR, other partners to the project including Uganda and Rwanda are yet to begin their own construction, under unclear circumstances.
Chinese financiers, the Exim Bank halted the funding after becoming increasingly skeptical about the viability of the project line starting from the Malaba border post between Uganda and Kenya, which was expected to cost $2.2 billion.
Citing lack of progress with the Chinese, the President of Uganda HE. Gen. Yoweri Museveni last year ordered his officials to open up the financing of the SGR to the world’s funding entities.
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