Tanzania has officially launched the sixth phase of its Standard Gauge Railway, marking a major step in extending the network towards Lake Tanganyika. President Samia Suluhu Hassan laid the foundation stone in Kigoma, signalling the start of construction on the Tabora – Uvinza – Kigoma section.

The Lot 6 contract, valued at TSh7.5tr (€2.5bn), will extend the strategic Central Corridor of the 1 435 mm gauge network westwards to the shores of Lake Tanganyika. The line is scheduled to enter service in 2030.

The project covers 411 km of main line and 95 km of station tracks, passing loops and sidings, giving a total of 506 track-km. The work is being delivered by a joint venture of China Railway Construction Corp and China Civil Engineering Construction Corp under the supervision of Tanzania Railways Corp.

Construction had already begun before the ceremonial launch and was reported to be more than 10% complete by July 20. According to the government, construction of Lot 6 is expected to create around 15 000 jobs in the Tabora and Kigoma regions.

The new line is projected to reduce journey times between Dar es Salaam and Kigoma from more than 20 h to around 8 h, lower freight transport costs and stimulate mining, agriculture, fisheries and tourism. It is also intended to strengthen Tanzania’s role as a logistics hub serving the Great Lakes region.

During the ceremony, President Hassan emphasised that Kigoma would no longer be ‘the end of the line’, but would become a gateway for regional trade linking east and central Africa. As part of her visit, she inaugurated the construction of four new lake vessels, which are being built as part of a strategy to create an integrated multimodal transport corridor. This will see freight arriving in Kigoma by rail shipped to ports in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. Hassan also highlighted the near-complete rehabilitation of the historic ferry MV Liemba.

In the longer term, the SGR corridor is intended to provide rail connections to the DRC, Zambia and Burundi. International freight trains for Burundi would use the Tabora – Uvinza section of Lot 6 before diverging onto the cross-border Uvinza – Musongati branch that is being developed under lots 7 and 8 of the SGR programme. Lot 7 covers the 156 km in Tanzania from Uvinza to the border at Malagarasi section, while Lot 8 covers the 84 km between Malagarasi and Musongati in Burundi.

Construction of the cross-border link was launched on August 16 2025 with a groundbreaking ceremony attended by Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye and Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa. A design-and-build contract for the route has been awarded to a consortium of China Railway Engineering Group and China Railway Engineering Design & Consulting Group, with implementation co-ordinated by TRC on behalf of the two governments.

As of mid-2026, the cross-border project was reported still to be in the pre-construction phase, with detailed engineering and administrative preparations underway ahead of the start of full-scale civil works. Completion of this line is targeted for 2030-31.

According to railwaygazette.com, the launch marks a significant milestone in Tanzania’s efforts to create a modern rail backbone for regional trade. The project is expected to transform Kigoma from a terminus into a thriving logistics hub, connecting the Indian Ocean coast with the Great Lakes region and beyond.