Source: IPPmedia.com

Tanzania and Uganda have agreed that a proposed joint commercial rail track from Tanga to Arusha and Musoma and onward to Kampala, would not cut through the Serengeti national park, ending 12-months of speculation.

As it stands now, the $1.9 billion railway line to link Tanga port and the Lake Victoria side dock of Port Bell close to Kampala via Musoma port, would route nearly 100 km south of the Serengeti to protect the ecosystem.

Transportation minister Omar Nundu told The Guardian on Sunday that the ambitious railway line project will not touch the Serengeti Park as it was being speculated.

“Rest assured that the railway line will be constructed 100km south of the Serengeti national park sprawling expanse,” Engineer Nundu declared.

The Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), keenly following infrastructure development plans touching on the Serengeti, was quick to applaud the two East African states for demonstrating that they are concerned by the Serengeti ecosystem. It said that planned regional developments will be in harmony with world heritage site requirements.

“We are very glad that the cross border railway line will pass through the densely populated areas to the south of the Serengeti where there is much more commercial potential, instead of the ecological fragile areas in the north,” says Dr Markus Borner, the Africa Director of the Frankfurt Zoological Society.

“We now have a solid development model that gives maximum support to the economic growth of the region without endangering the migration of nearly two million animals in the world-renowned national park,” he declared.

Recently, some environmentalists from East African countries registered their concerns, saying that laying the railway track through the Serengeti would have catastrophic effects on the migration of wild animals.

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