Ethiopian has closing on a deal worth $1.4 billion dollars loans to finance the national railway project, according to Fortune.

Ethiopian officials concluded the ‘milestone’ agreement last week in Beijing. However, details on the period of the loan and interest to be paid are hard to come-by. The loan amount could even be much higher than mentioned.

It will be the largest loan amount for Ethiopia to get from a bilateral source of funding when the final agreement is signed between the prime ministers of both countries, as early as in January 2013. The current loan will also raise the nation’s nation national railway project debt to 6.21 billion dollars..

The national railway project is will build a network of railway lines that connects major cities in Ethiopia through eight corridors.

China is also awarded some of the railway construction projects. Turkish and Indian companies are also involved. Though, the Ethiopian Railway Corporation (ERC) had terminated a contract awarded to the Indian firm few months ago.

The ERC plans to finalise the Addis Abeba-Modjo; Addis Abeba-Dire Dawa–Djibouti; Weldya-Semera-Tajourah; and Awash-Mekelle projects before 2014/15.