In a move to strengthen relations between the two East African Countries, Tanzania and Burundi have made significant strides into signing an agreement to construct a $900 million railway that will connect the two countries.

The two have already signed a memorandum of understanding to construct a 282-Kilometer (175-mile) line from Kigoma in Uvinza to Burundi in Gitega. The office of Tanzania’s finance ministry revealed that Tanzania and Burundi had signed a deal in the western region of Kigoma in Tanzania.

Tanzania aspires to become a regional trade and transport hub, is currently laying a standard gauge railway line to link the port of Dar es Salaam with the neighboring landlocked Democratic Republic of Congo, with talks to another railway to Rwanda being underway.

Tanzania and Burundi will seek to finance the railway. Mwigulu Nchemba, Tanzania’s Minister of Finance, said. Mwigulu said the cost would not exceed $900 million, though it did not reveal the funding source.