Ethio-Sudan Joint Railway Development

Standard Gauge Railway Connecting Ethiopia and Sudan

The Republic of Sudan and the Federal Republic of Ethiopia are aware of the vital role that transport could play in strengthening economic and social ties between the two countries.

Therefore, the governments of the two countries have come to common agreement to further elaborate these ties into joint development of railway link of agreed routes.

The project will link Ethiopia Capital (Addis Ababa) to Sudan eastern side connecting Ethiopia to Sudan sea port (Port Sudan)

The framework agreement was signed between the Ministers of Transport of Sudan and Ethiopia to link the railway reservation between the two countries on 12^th April, 2013, as the agreement was ratified by the Sudanese parliament and then entered into the implementation phase.

A technical committee was formed to follow up the implementation of the agreement, link the two countries, and follow up the project technically and financially from the beginnings until the operation of the project, as the railway technical committee was formed from both sides in April 2016.

Four sessions of the technical meetings of the PCC were held in the two countries. The first session was held in Khartoum in May 2016 and the second session was held in Addis Ababa in October 2016, while the third session was held in Khartoum in April 2018 and lastly the fourth session was held recently in Addis Ababa in December 2020.

The outcomes of the first session were:

• Establishing the methodology for the work of the technical committee and arranging its sessions.
• Preparing the project executive plan.

The outcomes of the second session were:

• Terms of reference (TOR) have been prepared for the economic feasibility study of the project
• An agreement was made for a financial agency to establish the project, and the mandate and responsibility granted to the agency was made to follow up the financial procedures for financing the feasibility study of the project from the African Development Bank.

The outcomes of the third session were:

• Agreed on the route of the railway line linking the two countries to be from Port Sudan – Haya – Kassala – Gedaref – Qallabat – Qandar – Rita – Weldia – Addis Ababa with total length of 1512 km, 918 km inside Sudan and 594 km inside Ethiopia.
• Review and approval of Terms of Reference (TOR) for the economic feasibility study of the project.
• Approval of the financing request letter from the African Development Bank for a feasibility study.
• Review the project executive plan.

The outcomes of the fourth session were:

• Agreed, approval and signature of the organizational structure of the agency responsible for managing the financing of the economic feasibility study that provided by the African Development Bank (AfDB).
• Agreed, approval and signature of the organizational structure for managing the Bankable Economic Feasibility Study project for the railway line linking the two countries.

Status of the Current Railway Projects:

• Despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, work began on the economic feasibility study in November 2020. A preliminary Inception report was issued and approved. It represents the benchmark for all study work.
• Financial transactions and payments for the study were also undertaken, which enabled the revitalization of the project at the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Other project activities are ongoing to fulfill the feasibility study as scheduled.