The Contract

The Contract for the "Kagera Basin Railway Study" was awarded by the K.B.O. to an Association created "ad hoc" between TECHNITAL S.p.A. (at the time “Technital International General Engineering”) and Austria Rail Engineering of Vienna (Austria). The Study was financed by the Italian and Austrian Governments.

The Official Contract was signed by the parties concerned in Geneva on 19th May 1982, while the effective starting date of the Contract was jointly agreed to be 1st November 1982.

The Kagera Basin

The Kagera River is the main contributor of the waters of Lake Victoria and is commonly regarded as the source of the White  Nile. The Basin lies between about 0^°45' and 3^°55' south la­titude and 29^°15' and 31°50' east longitude. It occupies 59,800 km² distributed among Burundi 22%., Rwanda 33%, Tanza­nia 35% and Uganda 10%

The Basin occupies part of two major physiographic regions: the West Rift Scarp Zone, encompassing the up-warped terrain on the east side of the West Rift, and the Lake Victoria Ba­sin, including the down-warped terrain of the sub-miocene ex­tending within the Rift.

The Population of the Basin is estimated at about 9 million by the end of 1984, with a population growth rate estimated at 3% per annum. The forecast for the year 2000 ís in the order of 12 million.

Transport and communication links both within the basin and to the rest of 'the world are inadequately developed. The ba­sin is landlocked and transportation of goods and people is time-consuming, arduous and expensive. Straight line distances from the basin to the   Indian Ocean are about 1000 km and 1900tot the Atlantic Ocean. The port of Dar Es Salaam by rail/ lake is 1430 km from Bujumbura and Kigali to Mombasa by road is 1740 km.

The Kagera Basin Organization

The Kagera Basin Organization (KBO) was created on August 24, 1977, when an agreement was signed between the Heads of State of Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania. In May 1981 Uganda also acceded to the Agreement. The creation of the Organization derived from the need to have a regional institution through which joint ef­forts towards the realisation of integrated development of the basin could effectively be advanced.

The objectives of the Kagera Basin Organization centred on the integrated development of the natural resources of the basin. The territorial jurisdiction of the Organization is the area drained by the Kagera River and its tributaries, plus any other geographical areas assigned to it by Governments to facilitate integrated planning and development of the Basin.

The development priorities were drawn up after a careful analysis of the socio-economic conditions in the riparian countries of the Kagera River Basin and evaluation of poten­tial resources and other elements necessary for socio-econo­mic advancement. The sectors accorded priority for develop­ment by the Organization included:

- Transport and Communications,
- Energy,
- Agriculture,
- Training.

For the transport and communications sector a two pronged ap­proach was envisaged. The highest priority was accorded to the disenclavement of the Basin region by the provision of regio­nal trunk roads and railways, to link the Basin to the exist­ing transport infrastructure in the East African Region in order to facilitate the movement of goods in and out of the Ba­sin. Considerable emphasis was also laid on the establishment and improvement of feeder roads which are essential for inte­grated rural development. The development of interstate tele­communication links between member countries of the Organiza­tion was also a high priority.

The Transportation Problem

The Kagera Basin is a rugged and landlocked region located far from the sea, some 1000 km in a straight line from the Indian Ocean and 1900 km from the Atlantic Ocean. Several modes have to be used to reach the coast and traffic links are consequently long, slow and expensive. The prohi­bitively high and constantly rising freight tariffs were partly the result of the numerous handling operations and diffe­rent modes involved, not to mention the ever-increasing fuel costs and the generally high road transport charges.

Within the Basin itself there were no railway links and the road network was in poor condition and totally inadequate. At the time of the study, the two possible routes to the Indian Ocean for the Kagera Basin traffic were :

• the "northern route" by road as far as Kampala and by railway or road, through Uganda and Kenya to Mombasa (Kigali-Kampala-Nairobi-Mombasa: 1740 km), and

• the “southern route" across Lake Tanganyika to Kigoma and then by railway through Tanzania to Dar Es Salaam (Bujumbura-Kigo­ma--Dar Es Salaam: 1430 km).

In view of this precarious and difficult transportation si­tuation, the KBO wished to ensure alternative outlets to the Indian Ocean which would provide options in terms of transit countries and transport modes. High priority was given, therefore, to the study of possible railway links to connect the Kagera Basin region to the existing East African railway system.

It is important to note that the economy of the Kagera Basin is predominantly agricultural. Moreover, most of the profit mar­gin of the agricultural exports was being absorbed by the high transport costs. The Basin also had a considerable mineral poten­tial, with recent discoveries of large nickel and iron ore deposits. But without cheap, reliable outlets to the Indian Ocean, there could be neither agricultural expansion, nor in­dustrial development nor exploitation of the mineral wealth the region.

The proposed railway links were therefore expected to stimu­late the economic growth of the region.

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