DAR ES SALAAM, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian authorities said Friday they have set aside 18 million U.S. dollars to compensate over 2,000 people living along the standard gauge railway (SGR) project construction.

Maizo Mgedzi, SGR Project Manager, said the money will be used to compensate people whose structures will be demolished to pave way for the project to be implemented in phases from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza region and other parts of the East African nation.

He told a workshop on Tanzania Intermodal and Rail Development Project (TIRP) in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam that the construction of the SGR went in tandem with the renovation of the meter gauge rail (MGR) funded by a 300-million-dollar loan from the World Bank.

Mgedzi said land acquisition was one of the big challenges facing the SGR project, adding that the amount set for compensation was projected to increase as the implementation of the project progressed.

Construction of the SGR began in April 2017, with the first phase consisting of a 205-km electric railway line from the port city of Dar es Salaam to Morogoro in eastern Tanzania.

The 1.2-billion-dollar line is being built by Turkish firm Yapi Merkezi and Portuguese firm Mota-Engil, and is expected to be completed by Nov. 1, 2019.

In March 2018, Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) identified 2,845 people who will be compensated as they will leave their areas to pave the way for the first phase of the SGR project between Dar es Salaam to Morogoro.

TRC director general Masanja Kadogosa said Ardhi University experts had been contracted to carry out a valuation study in areas where the 2,845 people live.

"Cooperation between the residents along the planned railway line and contractors is very good," he said. Enditem

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