The initiative was unveiled by Xi Jinping in late 2013, and was thereafter promoted by Premier Li Keqiang during state visits to Asia and Europe. A railroad will be linked from Kigali, capital of Rwanda, to Mombasa Port in Kenya.
In 2000 Burundi and Rwanda announced plans to build a rail line linking their two countries to the Tanzanian rail network, and thus to the Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam.
2006 delay
According to the Rwanda News Agency the African Development Bank was responsible for a 2006 delay in surveying the route of a rail link from Isaka through Rwanda's capital Kigali to Bujumbura. The initial feasibility study was to cost $2.7 million. According to the Rwandan News Agency officials stated the African Development Bank was to have loaned 90% of the cost of the railway, with the remainder paid by Tanzania and Rwanda. The Rwanda News Agency reported that an Indian firm named RITES was expected to take over the contract for the management of the Isaka line. A delegation from the American railroad BNSF also met with President Paul Kagame to discuss a route from Kigali to Isaka and at the same time the government announced that it had selected a German consulting company to undertake pilot work for the proposed mail line.
Chinese survey of 2007
China had played a big role in building the TAZARA part of Tanzania's rail network, and in 2007 conducted a survey for extending the network into Rwanda.
2008 plan
On January 26, 2008 Rwanda's President announced plans for BNSF Railway to build a link from Rwanda's capital Kigali to Tanzania's rail network in Isaka Tanzania. Some reports state the new line would be a narrow gauge, like the rest of Tanzania's rail service. Other reports state that Tanzania has already decided to upgrade its Isaka line to standard gauge, and that the Isaki-Kigali link would also be standard gauge. Yet other reports state that the Isaka-Rwanda leg would be of standard gauge and that cargo would be transshipped to different rolling stock in Isaka. According to Reuters political unrest in neighboring Kenya has disrupted the reliability of road and rail service through Kenya, and the Rwandan line would allow rail transport to bypass Kenya if rail transport was disrupted there in future. The proposed plan was projected to be complete by 2013. Projected costs have not yet been announced.
On 31 May 2008, a proposal to link the railways of Egypt, gauge, and Sudan, gauge, surfaced, with "Technical measures" to overcome the Break of gauge. What exactly these technical measures are was not revealed, but they presumably could be used on the new line to Kigali.
