Jinja Bridge

Jinja Bridge

The Jinja Bridge is a bridge under construction connecting Njeru to Jinga in Uganda. It is supposed to complement the existing bridge called Nalubaale Bridge. “As only the second crossing over the Victoria Nile in Uganda, the new Jinja Bridge will add critical capacity through an important economic corridor. The river creates a trade bottleneck in this landlocked African nation along the shores of Lake Victoria. The current crossing links the capital Kampala with the country’s regions east of the Nile along the Kenya border. The new 525 meter-long, cable-stayed bridge is budgeted at US$125 million, with the Japanese government financing 80 percent of the cost via a soft loan. A digital monitoring system will track stresses and strains to the bridge, to highlight any maintenance requirements” (KPMG).

(Image credits: Monitor)

Transcontinental Railway Brasil-Peru

Transcontinental Railway Brasil-Peru

A major railway project connecting two of South America’s most developing nations, Brazil and Peru, the Transcontinental Railway Brasil-Peru (also known as Fetab) aims to rapidly increase trade and commerce between the two countries.

“Its ambitious goal is to link the Atlantic and Pacific coasts with a rail line that would traverse Peruvian and Brazilian territory, facilitating the transportation of raw materials. The new railroad would primarily be used to transport phosphates from the port of Bayóvar in the northern Peruvian province of Piura to Brazil, thus enabling Brazilian soy to be exported to the Asian market through Peruvian ports.” (Knowledge, Wharton.Upenn)

The railway line is expected to span over 2800 miles. It would take 5 years to complete and would cost atleast $10 billion. The project is designed to increase production of crops and ore in landlocked northeastern states of Goiás, Mato Grosso and Rondônia and also reduce the strain on the country’s roads and motorways. Under a concession model, the government intends to award contracts for the construction and operation of the infrastructure of the new lines.

(Image credits: Daily Mail)

8 Million City

8 Million City

“Part-funded by the EU, the Scandinavian 8 Million City will similarly link

the capitals of Norway, Sweden and Denmark with a 600 kilometre high speed rail line. This US$24.6 billion initiative aims to enhance sustainable economic growth by reducing travel time, and providing closer business and academic cooperation that will help these

countries punch above their weight globally” (KPMG).

Why that particular region? The reason is because that corridor is the most densely populated stretch of Scandinavia, home to 8 million of the region's 20 million people. This Scandinavian region is growing dynamically. In the past decades, this growth has become concentrated around the cities along the railway corridor. Currently, it consists of a number of large labor markets totalling ca 3.5 million people. The labor force has, collectively, an increasing level of expertise and education in parallel with the structural reforms at the industrial enterprises in the area of the corridor. Currently, along the Oslo – Gothenburg – Copenhagen route, there are 29 universities with 260,000 students and 14,000 researchers. With its 22 research parks and innovative incubators, the corridor is becoming a cohesive Scandinavian belt of knowledge.

 An ambitious plan aims to link up its cities, medium-sized by global standards, across three different countries to form a single megalopolis - '8 Million City'. A high-speed train link would reduce rail travel time between Oslo and Copenhagen from 7.5 hours today to 2.5 hours by 2025. Hence, all these efforts are justified to create such a project!

(Image credits: Big Think)