The funding for face 2B of Standard Gauge Railway aka Naivasha-Kisumu is ready.
The announcements were made by the Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia while in Beijing, China during the Forum for China Africa Cooperation (Focac).
CS Macharia also added that Chinese government was in the final stages of releasing the funds, pointing that the plans for extending the project to Malaba were also in future plans.
“Kenya is the entry gate of the SGR, which runs from Lamu-Mombasa-Naivasha-Kisumu-Lake Victoria all the way to the Atlantic Ocean in West Africa. However, Kenya cannot develop it on its own because it will not be viable due to the fact that 30 percent of cargo from Mombasa is on transit, of which 85 percent goes to Uganda. There is need to harmonise the SGR with what countries in the region are doing,” said Mr Macharia.
The project will kick off in September 2019.
“On the future of the SGR and its status, Kenyans need to know that Phase 2A is 98 percent complete and will be operationalised in September. Eventually, the SGR will reach Kisumu and finally Malaba, only timing has changed,” he said.
The connection to Malaba has been modernized and improved so as to ease the movement of goods once they are in Naivasha.
“Since by September we will start receiving goods at Naivasha from Mombasa and Naivasha-Kisumu is not yet ready — even if we start today it will take three to four years — we had to rehabilitate the old railway to Malaba so that while it will take nine hours for goods to arrive in Naivasha, it should take the same time for the goods to reach Uganda, which is our biggest client. Without modernising it, it might take two days,” said the CS.
Source – Daily Nation
