Mapping of the Kigali-Kampala railway that will connect  Rwanda to the Kenyan port of Mombasa will commence next month, a senior engineer at the Ministry of Infrastructure has said.

The study, expected to end in December, will cost $6 million (about Rwf4 billion) jointly funded by Rwanda and Uganda at a tune of $2m and $4 million, respectively.

Jules Ndenga, the senior engineer in charge of roads and railway at the Ministry of Infrastructure, said Uganda is in the process of procuring the contractor who will conduct the study.

"Within this month, the contractor will be unveiled and then the study kicks off in early February,” he said.

Mombasa-Kigali standard gauge railway that will cost $13.5 billion is envisaged to be complete by 2018, although there is still the task of joint mobilisation of funds for the project. 

Ndenge said after the mapping, countries will embark on mobilising funds as well as contracting the company to carry out the construction.

The railway is another quick alternative means to ease transportation of imports and exports on the Northern Corridor that links Mombasa port to other east African countries, including Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi, DR Congo and some parts of Tanzania.

Most traders depend on trucks for ferrying their goods, which presents challenges, especially with the trade barriers such as roadblocks, axle load bridges, corruption as well as delays at borders in the process of clearing.

Expensive road transport

Robert Bapfakulera, the managing director of Roba General Merchants, dealers in exports and imports of consumer goods, said road transport presents several challenges.

"The use of trucks in transportation is expensive and not available sometimes and this leads to delays of our goods at the port which impacts our business negatively; the use of a railway will be cheaper since it carries many wagons,” Bapfakulera said.

He said he normally spends $200 on transport per tonne of goods from Mombasa to Kigali.

He believes with a railway, transportation costs would drop by 50 per cent, which would ease doing business in the region.

Jackie Rurangwa, the managing director Multilines International, dealers in cargo freights and logistics, said the business community is counting on the railway project as saviour.

"It will be cheaper for us because we all transport goods using trucks,” Rurangwa said.

Kenya commissioned the construction of a railway network from Mombasa to Nairobi last year.  Construction works will be undertaken in three phases starting from Mombasa to Nairobi, then Nairobi-Malaba and Kisumu in phase two as well as Malaba-Kisumu connecting to Kampala.

Experts say, once in place, the railway line will have the capacity to ferry cargo at speed of up 80 kilometres per hour, which will trim down transportation costs–considered one of the leading challenges to doing business within the region.

Currently, it takes about five days for a cargo truck from Mombasa port to reach Kigali.

This is a challenge since more than 50 per cent of Rwanda’s imports come through the same port.