Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has proposed plans to build a new standard gauge railway (SGR) linking Kampala, the capital city, with the Kenyan border, The EastAfrican weekly newspaper reported.

“We’re going to build a brand-new SGR line from Kampala to Kasese. Later on, we will extend it from Kampala to the border of Kenya and then to South Sudan,” he said.  

The move aims to lower the cost of transport and improve the country’s competitiveness, he added.

The announcement may also help extend the Chinese-funded SGR from Naivasha to Malaba via Kisumu.

Goods sent to Uganda from Mombasa port are currently transported by road from Naivasha, where the SGR line from Mombasa ends.

In May last year, the country signed a 5 billion Shilling ($40.5 million) deal with a Chinese firm to revamp its century-old metre gauge railway line between Malaba and Kampala to create seamless travel from the Mombasa port.

The newspaper said that Uganda’s decision poses a conundrum for Kenya, which had cancelled plans to extend the SGR line to the Ugandan border.

(Editing by Cleofe Maceda; Cleofe.maceda@lseg.com)