Press Center | Freight Shipping Logistics News
The cost of major commodities is expected to fall in the next three to five years, once the construction of a standard gauge railway, slated to begin on Thursday is completed by 2016.
Due to the high road transportation costs between Mombasa and Nairobi among other major towns, basic commodity prices have remained high.
The new Standard Gauge Railway line, which is a Vision 2030 Flagship project to be, implemented by the Kenya Railways Corporation, will typically present an opportunity for the railways operator to run freight trains with 54 double stack flat wagons carrying 216 TEUs per trip.
"The Kenya Government, he reiterated has already lined up funding for the project with a Sh22 billion allocation in the current national budget," the acting Vision 2030 director general Wainaina Gituro has said.
Further budget resources, will be raised through the Railway development fund levy and a Sh280bn (US$ 3.3bn) loan from the EXIM Bank of China.
Ahead of the SGR line construction groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, Prof Gituro confirmed that Kenya Railways had completed the project Feasibility studies and preliminary designs.
In addition, Kenya Railways has also signed two commercial contracts for the delivery of the civil works Sh221bn (US$ 2.6 billion) and Supply, installation/commissioning of facilities, locomotives and rolling stock Sh97bn (US$ 1.146 billion).
The groundbreaking will be led by President Uhuru Kenyatta, among other regional heads of states, Kenya will be taking the lead to confirm its commitment to operationalise the “Tripartite Agreement” signed by The Governments of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda in Mombasa last august.
The tripartite agreement committed the three states to explore avenues to build a standard gauge railway connecting Mombasa to Kampala and on to Kigali.
In recent days, Burundi and South Sudan have also expressed their interest to be part of the project.