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| A railway Line Under construction. This is how we do it |
The ground breaking ceremony for the Mombasa –Kigali standard Gauge Railway
line is slated for November 28th, we can report. This marks the
beginning of the construction of the US$ 13.5 billion 2937KM standard Gauge railway
line sponsored by the governments of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.
Kenya has already secured US$3.75 from China for the construction of the
line and rolling stock. The Kenyan side of the line will cover some 1185km
running from Mombasa through Nairobi to Malaba with a branch line to Kisumu. This
section is expected to be completed by 2017. The entire project is expected to be complete by 2018.
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| Mombasa Port: Congested |
Across the borders the project will
involve; a 1,400km rail from Malaba to Kampala and branching to four Ugandan
towns before connecting to the main line to Rwanda at Mirima Hills; a 200km
rail from Mirima Hills to Kigali and an extra 150km rail to other towns in
Rwanda.
The new line will enable passenger trains to run at 120Km per hour while
freight trains will do 80km per hour. It is expected to cut freight costs from
the port of Mombasa to Kisumu by whopping75 per cent from about US$1,648 to
US$353 per 20 foot container.
The Mombasa Port-Kampala-Kigali Railway line, christened Mokaki, comes at
an opportune time as the Port of Mombasa, the largest Port in east Africa, is
also being expanded to meet the growing demand. The Port which handled 21
Million tons of freight last year, plans to raise its capacity to 40 million
tons a year from 2015. Read http://eaers.blogspot.com/2013/07/kenya-ports-post-panamax-project-ahead.html
Freight to and from Uganda and
Rwanda stood at 23 million tons last year and grows at three percent a year. A
part from imports, growing trade between Kenya and her two neighbours will also
benefit from the construction of the high-speed Railway line. For further
reading visit: http://eaers.blogspot.com/2013/07/coming-soon-mombasa-kigali-express.html
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