Construction of high-speed railway line to begin this week

Railway workers rehabilitate an old track. Kenya has

 awarded a Ksh1.2 trillion tender of building the

 Mombasa-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway line to

China Bridges and Roads Company.

By Griffins Omwenga,  Saturday, November 23, 2013

In Summary

• First train to leave Mombasa for Nairobi by end of 2016
• The Kenya Railways Corporation has said works on the first section between Mombasa and Nairobi will begin after the ground-breaking.
• The new standard gauge rail will have a handling capacity of 216 20-foot equivalent units equivalent to 4,000 tonnes per train, which are over 10 times the current capacity of 20 equivalent units.
• A passenger train will move at 120 kilometres an hour but the rail will be designed to support speeds of up to 160 kph.

Construction of the Mombasa-Malaba standard gauge railway line is set to start when President Uhuru Kenyatta breaks ground on Thursday.

The Kenya Railways Corporation has said works on the first section between Mombasa and Nairobi will begin after the ground-breaking.

Some Sh220 billion from the Chinese Exim bank and the Kenya Government will be used to lay the track, set up three stations, finance workshops, lay roads and put up a fence along the railway line.

Another Sh120 billion will be used to buy locomotives and communication systems.

“We intend to have the first train leaving Mombasa to Nairobi before the end of 2016,” said railways acting managing director Alfred Matheka.

The Government will foot 15 per cent of the cost while China will take care of the remaining 85 per cent as a loan.

Mr Matheka said the construction will be done in two phases: Mombasa to Nairobi and Nairobi to Malaba via Kisumu.

“Construction is expected to begin on December 1 and take three years, with the line entering service by January 1, 2017,” said Mr Matheka in an interview with the Sunday Nation.

SOUTH SUDAN WANTS TO BE INCLUDED

South Sudan has also put forth its request to be incorporated in the tripartite project and is setting up a policy that will see it join the railway network which will extend it to its capital, Juba.

“At an infrastructure summit in Rwanda last month, where South Sudan was incorporated, President Salva Kiir committed to have a policy paper ratified to that effect,” confirmed Mr Matheka. The railway line will extend from Kampala, through Pakwach, to Juba.

The standard gauge railway will cover 609 km (Nairobi-Mombasa), including crossing loops and marshalling yards.

In Kenya, there will be 33 crossing stations and two passenger and freight handling stations in Mombasa and Nairobi.

Running times for passenger trains between Mombasa and Nairobi will be four hours, and eight hours for freight.

“The trains will be diesel powered initially but the construction will also include electricity lines because we intend to power the trains electrically when Kenya energy resources allow for it,” said the managing director.

He added: “The entire electricity the country produces is not sufficient to power the railway after completion.”

The gauge will also be seamless, unlike the current metre gauges which are different even within the Kenyan railway network, making it impossible to have one train make a non-stop journey.

The new standard gauge rail will have a handling capacity of 216 20-foot equivalent units equivalent to 4,000 tonnes per train, which are over 10 times the current capacity of 20 equivalent units.

TRAINS SET TO BE LONGER

One train will be more than a kilometre long and will be pulled by two locomotives.

A passenger train will move at 120 kilometres an hour but the rail will be designed to support speeds of up to 160 kph.

The railway line will also be fenced all the way from Mombasa to Malaba and in areas where it passes through animal parks and reserves like the Tsavo National Park, the fence will use special material to scare away the animals. Other sections will be fenced off using chain link.

The railway line will also have a fibre optic cable throughout its length since it will be computer driven and will have CCTV cameras in certain areas.
“The trains will be run by, at most, two people from the headquarters since they will be fully automated,” said Mr Matheka.

He said that the railway line will be built to international standards using the Chinese and American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association standards.

“It will remain relevant for many generations,” he said.

The construction will be done by China Road and Bridge Corporation, which transport Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau said meets technical, managerial, financial and legal capacities to implement the project.

Meanwhile, the Transport committee of Parliament had raised issues on why single sourcing was used to award the tender to the Chinese company.

“The project is strategic and an enabler of the country’s economic growth as envisioned in the country’s long term projects,” said the Secretary, who added that the Chinese company was awarded the tender as Chinese financiers prefer extending loans to Chinese companies that have won tenders.

Mr Kamau told the committee meeting in Parliament — chaired by Starehe MP Maina Kamanda — that the Chinese government had given the contractor the go ahead.

file | NATION
The existing Kenya-Uganda railway. Many kilometers of the old line lies in a state of disuse. It be replaced by the standard gauge railway.