East African rail master plan

[John Ashworth]

EAST AFRICAN RAIL MASTER PLAN

Posted on 23 April 2009 by Railways Africa Editor

The first Extraordinary meeting of the Sectoral Council on Transport Communications and Meteorology was held from 15-17 April 2009 in Arusha, Tanzania. The meeting, which deliberated mainly on the draft East African Railways Master Plan, was chaired by chairperson of the sectoral council and minister for infrastructure of the Republic of Rwanda Linda Bihire. The ministers of transport for Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya attended.

The Sectoral Council considered the draft East African Railways Development Master Plan and made fundamental recommendations, giving the secretariat and task force on the plan three months to incorporate the ministers’ comments and proposals and come up with the final document. The Sectoral Council also directed the secretariat, in consultation with partner states, to urgently solicit financing to undertake the detailed design, environmental and social impact studies and financing options for the identified priority lines of the project; and undertake a study on the feasibility of public private partnerships for infrastructure development in the region including the legal and legislative framework to support these arrangements.