"A railway line would boost cement production and lower the cost" this comments were made by Mr Hussein Mansi, the Chairman of the Lafarge group while commissioning the $120 mn new Hima Cement factory extension. He said the cost of transportation and energy continues to push the price of local cement upwards. "It costs five times more to transport a tonne of cement in East Africa, compared to doing so in China and most of Asia," Mansi added. The Lafarge Group is parent company of Hima Cement Uganda. The plant extension is expected to increase the production capacity to about 8,00,000 tonne of cement in a year. However for many property developers, the price is very high. Locally produced cement was priced at an average of Ushs25,000 per bag in 2010 Imported cement can also be weighed at the same average due to the high dollar rate. This is reason that local producers like Hima Cement will want to see the fast tracking of the railway, which is much cheaper in providing transportation, which would then translate into lower prices for locally produced cement. "We need a railway line to connect us to the regional market for us to offer lower prices for our customers," he concluded. TransCentury and Citadel that bought shares in the struggling Rift Valley Railways will be restructuring the operations of the railway at a tune of $250m as their initial capital expenditure. "We are working on the roads and the railway projects which will be complete in the next three years," said Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s President.
According to Museveni who officially opened the cement plant, this investment is likely to fetch over Ushs1b($140). The president also said that energy prices would drop when the Bujagali Power Project is finally completed.