Barely two months after the completion of repair works on the existing Mombasa-Nairobi railway link, tenders for design and building of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) linking the two cities; supply of locomotives and rolling stock has been announced to close on Thursday this week.
The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR is part of the larger Kenya-Uganda-Rwanda railway connection. It also marks the first phase of the project and is set for groundbreaking in November this year. At an estimated cost of sh340bn, the project will largely be financed through a mix of the recently introduced import levy of 1.5 per cent on all imported goods and concessional loan from China.
The Sh33 trillion joint venture, scheduled for completion in 2018, will see to the laying down of over 2,500 kilometers of standard railway line while Sh174 billion will be spent on the rolling stock.
The design for Phase II of the line covering 511 Kilometres from Nairobi to Malaba is being undertaken by the Kenya Railways Cooperation and is scheduled for completion by end of 2013.
Design for the Kampala to Malaba line covering 250 Km will be complete by October 2013 in which a second phase of the Tororo-Packwach railway line was completed in 2011.
Phase III of 344 Km will cover Kampala to Kasese en route to Bihanga-Mirana hills (200 Km).The government of Rwanda will develop the 200 Kilometres line from Mirama hills to Kigali.
The SGR will allow freight trains to go up to speeds of 120kph while passenger trains will attain 180kph.
Kenya’s planned railway system
Kenya is also planning to construct a 1,400km Lamu-Lokichoggio railway and the Nairobi-Moyale 700km rail which will connect Kenya to Juba in South Sudan as part of the Lamu Port- South Sudan- Ethiopia transport corridor.
Kenya Railways Corporation is set to start the construction of a modern metropolitan commuter railway network within Mombasa city to address the traffic congestion.
The Rail corridor will have 6 lines which will include Mombasa-Airport, Likoni-Ramisi corridor, the Mombasa-Mtwapa-Kilifi-Malindi corridor, Mombasa-Mazeras-Voi corridor, Likoni ferry-Panga corridor also known as Mombasa ring corridor, Mazeras-Kaloleni-Takaungu corridor and finally the Malindi-Lamu corridor.