Kenya, China sign SGR deal worth Ksh549 billion

Kenya and the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) have signed an agreement for the construction of the Naivasha-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line under the Kenya SGR Developments Project valued at Ksh549 billion.

This comes after Cabinet approved signing of the commercial contracts between Kenya Railways and CCCC.

The four commercial contracts for the development of the four elements of the project including: Naivasha- Kisumu line; Kisumu-Malaba line; Kisumu Port Development and Modernization; and expansion of the Inland Container Depot at Embakasi, Nairobi.

Kenya is constructing a standard gauge railway between Mombasa and Malaba as part of the East African Community protocol for the development of infrastructure connecting the Port of Mombasa to Kampala, Kigali and Juba.

The entire network is supposed to be in operation by December 2018, and member states are working towards meeting the timelines of the directive.

On Wednesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta launched a scholarship program to train new railway engineers in China for the future sustainability of the railway.

The President hosted 25 students who will proceed to Beijing’s Jiaotong University through the scholarship, funded by CCCC, at State House, Nairobi, where he urged them to commit themselves to their studies to benefit Kenya.

The 25 students are the first batch of 60 students who have been selected to railway engineering specialising in design and construction, signaling and communication and operation and maintenance – all at degree level.

In early March, it was announced that the cost of building underground tunnels in the second phase of the SGR from Nairobi to Malaba was estimated to be Ksh63 billion.

This figure is a sixth of the cost incurred in the construction of the railway between Mombasa and Nairobi.

The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure said the tunnels will be expensive owing to the distance and work involved.

The tunnels between Nairobi and Naivasha will cover 23 per cent of the total distance and are estimated to cost Ksh18.2 billion.

Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said the section will have more than 20 tunnels cutting through the Rift Valley escarpments and this will make the design work more expensive because it will have to achieve a certain gradient to connect to the next section.