China Eximbank offers a $7.9 million USD loan to Tanzania for a Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project between Morogoro and Makutupora (Linked to #52354)

On July 20, 2016, China Exim Bank, offered a preferential loan of $7.9 million USD to Tanzania for a Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) corridor project connecting Morogoro and Makutupora. The rail corridor, which will be economically beneficial to the port of Dar es Salaam, is expected to cost around $2 billion USD with co-financing from Turk Eximbank. China Eximbank originally pledged a massive $7.6 billion USD for the entire SGR network (see Project #52354) but the President of Tanzania cancelled the financing deal with China and blacklisted Chinese companies from the bidding process due to tender irregularities. The Turkish construction giant Yapi Merkezi won the contract to construct a rail link between Morogoro and Mako-Tabora. The contract was originally awarded to a Chinese consortium, but subsequently cancelled on account of irregularities. The awarding of the market to a Turkish company was discussed during the visit of the Turkish president Recep Tayip Erdogan to Tanzania in January in meetings with his Tanzanian counterpart John Magufuli. The first contract was from Dar to Morogoro 205-km line. The consortium of China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and China Railway Engineering Corporation won the bid for management of the line for six years. Tanzania divided construction of its railway into four parts, and put out separate tenders to design it. The three remaining sections are Makutupora to Tabora (294 km), Tabora to Isaka (133 km) and Isaka to Mwanza (248 km).

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