Friends of the Rail Forum

Sudan is planning a $643 million revamp of its shattered railway network before connecting it to neighboring countries, part of efforts to revive an economy ravaged by decades of dictatorship and global isolation.

The African Development Bank and unspecified Gulf firms have expressed interest in helping restore about 2,400 kilometers (1,490 miles) of currently idled rail lines, according to the state-run Sudan Railways Corp. The government will first spend $17 million making emergency repairs to parts of the other half of the national network that’s already in use.

“It’s essential for the economic development of the country,” SRC’s general manager, Waleed Mahmoud Ahmed, said in an interview in the capital, Khartoum...

Sudan is planning a $640m programme to rehabilitate its 4,725km rail system, half of which has fallen out of use...

The first phase of the project will be to carry out $17m of emergency repairs to lines that are in use. The second will be to renew abandoned lines, most of which are in the south of the country. This phase will connect the cities of Madani, Kosti and Sennar, as well as Nyala in Darfur state. It will also establish a cross-border connection to Wau in the Republic of South Sudan...