East African Business Week (Kampala)
Cedric Lumiti
11 January 2009
Nairobi, Kenya — The governments of Kenya and Uganda will soon commence the construction of a new standard gauge railway line to decongest the Mombasa Port and improve transportation on the Northern Corridor.
The construction of the railway line is expected to cut delays of cargo at the port of Mombasa by 70 per cent. The port, currently handling in excess of 16 million tonnes of cargo per year, is projected to reach 30 million tonnes by 2030.
At a joint commission meeting on the new Kenya-Uganda Railway at a Nairobi hotel last week, Prime Minister Raila Odinga noted that despite the government's introduction of a 24-hour operation at the Mombasa Port to reduce delays, the containers do not get transported upcountry in good time due to problems with the railways.
He said by the end of last year the railway was carrying about seven per cent of the cargo and its haulage was going down by five per cent. Uganda's Transport Minister, John Nasasira reiterated that the two governments have the capacity to finance the construction of the new line without depending on donors.
The railway has in the past changed names several times from Kenya-Uganda Railways, East Africa Railways and Habours, Kenya Railways to the current Rift Valley Railways, in futile attempts to revive it.
Odinga said the railway will unlock the potential of the region currently hampered by poor transport. He noted the railway which has been a lifeline for the East African countries has since become an obstacle to the very trade it was built to promote. He lamented the continued reliance on the outdated railway line has been both expensive to the country's economy and pulling down other countries in the region.
"It is a shame on us as a region especially for Kenya and Uganda that 100 years since the colonialists built the railway line we have not added an extra inch. All we have done is run down what we inherited," said Odinga.
Odinga said the Joint Ministerial Railway Commission he will co-chair with Uganda Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi will come up with an organization secretariat and staff in the next few months and put out an expression of interest before budget day for the next fiscal year. At the same time Transport Minister Chirau Mwakwere said the current meter gauge railway was overwhelmed in terms of capacity and speed with which it moves cargo from the port of Mombasa.
He said the current state of the line cannot be relied upon to address the cargo transport challenges faced at the port and the ever increasing number of passengers.
He said the restoration of the existing railways to its full capacity of five million tonnes would require at least US$ 500 million over a period of 5 years.
Mwakwere said the feasibility study projected the cost of the new railway to be US$ 8 million for Kenya and US$ 2 million for Uganda. He said the project was expected to be completed and ready for use by 2017.
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