KENYA’S RAILWAY AMBITIONS
Posted on 25 September 2009 by Railways Africa Editor
Speaking at a press conference, Kenya Railway Corporation managing director Nduva Muli promised an impressive reduction in the cost of freight transport once the proposed new standard-gauge line is built from Mombasa via Nairobi (for completion by 2013), to Malaba on the border with Uganda together with a branch to Kisumu on Lake Victoria (2016). The line is to be of high capacity, with trains carrying a minimum of 4,000 tonnes travelling at an average speed of 120km/h. “This compares with 800 tonnes on the existing metre-gauge line and a maximum speed of 45km/h,” he was quoted saying. Passengers are to be conveyed in double-deck trains running at ”an average” 160km/h.
The high cost of transport in Kenya continues to render the country’s products uncompetitive in the global market, Muli pointed out. “In India and China, for example, railway transport accounts for 90% of the long distance freight movement while in Kenya a meagre 5% is what is transported by railway, causing pressure on the road network.”
The Mombasa-Malaba line is one of three routes identified in the corporation’s national railway master plan. The others are lines from a proposed new port at Lamu to Juba in the Sudan and from Nairobi to Addis Abeba in Ethiopia. Construction plans for all these are at advanced stages, Muli said.
He did not disclose how the expected price of Sh320 billion ($US4bn) is to be financed.
[ Nor whether this figure includes the cost of locomotives, double-deck passenger coaches and other rolling stock. – editor.
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