Senegal’ government and Chinese group China Railway Construction Corporation International signed on December 23, 2015, an agreement for the rehabilitation of the Dakar-Kidira railway. Global cost for the project is FCFA754 billion ($1.25 billion), Minister of infrastructures and terrestrial transport, Mansour Elimane Kane, revealed.  

Financing will be provided through a Chinese loan with interest rate of 2% and reimbursing period of 30 years.

Rehabilitation of the 633km-long railway should last 4 years and generate more than 20, 000 jobs. 15% of works for rehabilitation under the agreement which represent a sum of FCFA113 billion will be carried out by local companies. The project also includes works on the 310km-long Tambacounda-Kédougou (East and South East) segment.

The finalization of this agreement was only possible as a result of the cancellation of contract for operation of the railway which was to go to Transrail, a company that belongs to Franco-Senegalese business mogul Abbas Jaber.

According to Elimane Kane, the cancellation is most logical since “this concessionaire could not invest such an amount to rehabilitate the railway”.