The African Integrated High Speed Railway Network An Ambitious Project To Unifying The African Continent
In an ambitious stride towards unifying the African continent physically and economically, the African Union (AU) has launched a monumental initiative known as the African Integrated High Speed Railway Network (AIHSRN). This initiative is a cornerstone of the AU’s Agenda 2063, aimed at transforming the face of African infrastructure.
The AIHSRN not only aligns with but also fortifies the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), an overarching strategy for continent-wide infrastructure advancement. The project’s underlying principles echo the vision, scale, space, and timeframe of PIDA, with an emphasis on comprehensive development across the continent.
The AIHSRN project is designed to be a powerful tool for enabling and accelerating the implementation of several continental initiatives. These include the Boosting of Intra-African Trade (BIAT), the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), the Comprehensive Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), the Accelerated Industrial Development for Africa (AIDA), the African Mining Vision (AMV), and the Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Action Plan (PMPA). Besides, the AIHSRN is seen as an important catalyst to foster peace and security across the African continent, a critical need in these times.
The AIHSRN project gained momentum following the validation and adoption of its Detailed Scoping Study (DSS) by the African Union’s Specialised Technical Committee on Transport, Infrastructure, Intercontinental and Interregional Infrastructure, Energy, and Tourism (STC-TTIIET) in Cairo, Egypt, in November 2019. Recommendations from the High-Speed Rail project session in January 2021 further propelled the initiative, highlighting the need for the African Union Commission (AUC), African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to engage with pilot member states. The goal is to assess these states’ preparedness to undertake Agenda 2063’s high-speed railway network pilot projects.
The implementation of the AIHSRN is planned in stages, with two 10-year phases already outlined, known as AIHSRN Master Plan 2033 and AIHSRN Master Plan 2043. The 2033 Master Plan includes 13 pilot railway projects to be completed by 2033. Following the Project Prioritization Framework (PPF) from the previously mentioned study, two pilot projects have been selected from the 2033 Master Plan and their comprehensive scoping has been concluded.
The two accelerated pilot projects include:
The combined rail links L35 & 36 from Walvis Bay to Windhoek to Gaborone, and rail link L37 from Gaborone to Johannesburg. The project will benefit Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) taking the lead.
Rail Link 34 from Kigali to Dar es Salaam, combined with rail link L72 from Kampala to Bujumbura. This project will benefit Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, with the East African Community (EAC) playing a leading role.
In summary, the AIHSRN project is an ambitious step by the AU to drive economic and physical integration across Africa, with an aim to foster peace, security, and sustainable development.
