It is intended to ease the transfer of goods between the Indian Ocean ports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, and the Rwandan capital Kigali.
The system is expected to link, in the future, to Rwanda's two other neighbors, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as part of the East African Railway Master Plan.
The planned section from Kigali to the border district of Rubavu on the northern shore of Lake Kivu is about 150 kilometres (93 mi) long.
[5][6] In June 2019, the government of the DR Congo indicated its willingness to participate in a feasibility study for the SGR to extend to Rubavu and the Congolese city of Goma.
[12] This 1435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) railway line is intended to ease the transfer of goods between the ports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, to Kigali in Rwanda and subsequently to Bujumbura in Burundi, and to Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.