The Port Bell -Kampala railway line is ready for use following rehabilitation by the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC), the managers of that system of transport in the country.
Having finished the rehabilitation works, URC will on April 27, 2018 test the railway line with a cargo train, eleven years since the once famous line became inactive, affecting passengers and businesses alike.
The URC Senior Marine officer, Charles Ruzigye, says government has invested over Shs1b in replacing old rails and slippers, among other items for the line whose station is on the shores of Lake Victoria in Luzira.
“We have replaced the rails and slippers and we plan to have a trial run for a cargo train from Port Bell in Luzira to Kampala,” Ruzigye told the media in Kampala recently.
According to Ruzigye, the test is aimed at checking the strength of the railway line that will connect to Tanzania port Mwanza also on Lake Victoria.
The project is part of the Central Corridor and according to Ruzigye, will help boost the movement of cargo between Dar es Salaam and Kampala.
The rehabilitation of the port Bell railway station follows a memorandum of understanding between the governments of Uganda and Tanzania on joint ministerial cooperation and improvement of ports, inland waterways and railway transport in order to increase transit trade.
The agreement establishes the re-opening of multi-modal transport through the use of trains and wagon ferry services. The Central Corridor that starts from Dar es Salaam port in Tanzania to the hinterland includes routes in Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“As we plan to open the Central Corridor starting from Kampala, the Tanzania government has already provided MV Umoja while Uganda already has got MV Kaawa,” Ruzigye said.
Each marine vessel can carry 880 tonnes of cargo per trip and is capable of making eleven voyages in one month. He said that the ferries that carry 44-20ft containers take only 17 hours from Mwanza to Port Bell.
Government meanwhile is seeking for US$4 – US$5m to rehabilitate MV Pamba that has been docked at Port Bell for 13 years now.
Ruzigye says he said Tanzania is already using railway from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza.
He said that URC, Tanzania Ports Authority, Tanzania Railways Corporation, and the Marine Services Limited of Tanzania have established new affordable tariffs as an incentive to the regional traders.
Tanzania Port Authority (TPA) Director General Eng. Deusdedit Kakoko said container rates for the Ugandan traders will also be reduced. Those who will start using the route from Port Bell to Dar port will benefit from the reduced rates during in May.
The revised rates are; US$60-US$70 per tonne for containers from Uganda transported through Port Bell via Mwanza to Dar Port, while containers from Dar Port via Mwanza to Kampala will be charged US$75.
Port Bell used to handle 600,000 tonnes of cargo but this had dropped to about 10,000 tonnes. This is expected to improve as infrastructure in the central Corridor is re-ordered including the opening of the one stop border post at Mutukula.
Meanwhile Kampala residents who used to use this line are cheerful as URC revives it. “I used to travel on this line from Luzira to the city centre. It was convenient and cheap. No traffic jam,” said Simon Peter Odongo, 70, now a resident of Namuwongo.
Meanwhile, road network through the corridor between Dar es Salaam and Kampala and is now extensively used to move cargo with a cargo delivery time of four days to Kampala, while the weighbridges between Mutukula and Dar es Salaam have been reduced to only three from eight days.
