Chad signed on Monday a $7-billion (five-billion-euro) contract with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) to build a railway in the oil-producing nation.
Infrastructure and Transport Minister Adoum Younousmi said construction should begin next year of the first two lines of the 1,344 kilometres (835 miles) of railway, linking the country with neighbouring Sudan and Cameroon for transportation of goods.
A second phase would link the two lines via the capital N'Djamena.
China will finance the construction of the railways and the mode of repayment will be decided later.
Chad, which only began to produce oil in 2003, launched a major programme of public works construction in 2009.
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