Isaka–Kigali Standard Gauge Railway that both countries had agreed to change the railway design to accommodate electric locomotives which are faster than the original diesel-powered equipment. In April 2018, the same newspaper further reported that the World Bank had expressed its willingness to fund this project. In January 2018, the government of Rwanda allocated space in Ndera, approximately , by road, east of Kigali city center, on which the passenger terminal of the SGR will be built. The cargo terminal will be built in Masaka, another neighborhood, approximately , by road, south-east of the central business district of Kigali City. Rwanda has plans to
Kigali new independent nation, but Kigali was chosen because of its more central location. The city grew slowly during the following decades, but retained a small-town feel, with just 25,000 people and five paved roads by the early 1970s. On 6 July 1973 there was a bloodless military coup, in which minister of defence Juvénal Habyarimana overthrew ruling president Gregoire Kayibanda. Businesses closed for a few days, and troops patrolled across the city, but life had returned to normal and the army had left the streets by 11 July. In April 1994 President Habyarimana was assassinated, when his plane was shot