Shem Oirere

CONSTRUCTION of the $US 3.8bn 472km Mombasa - Nairobi standard-gauge railway (SGR) is due to be completed in March by China Railway and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), which has a 10-year concession to operate the line, to allow test running to begin in preparation for the start of train operation in June.

PRESIDENT Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya has officially launched the construction of the 120km Phase 2A of the 489km standard-gauge railway linking Mombasa with the Ugandan border.

KENYA’s National Environment Tribunal has suspended the construction of the $US 1.5bn standard-gauge railway line extension from Nairobi to Naivasha.

Kenya is on course to complete a new Chinese-funded 472km standard-gauge railway line linking Mombasa with Nairobi in the second half of 2017. Shem Oirere reports from Nairobi on progress so far and assesses the project's prospects for success.

THE Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (Tazara), which operates the 1860km 1067mm-gauge railway linking Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with New Kapiri-Mposhi, Zambia, has revealed that freight traffic dropped by 57% from 208,538 tonnes in 2013-14 to less than 90,000 tonnes in 2014-15.

CAMRAIL, the concessionaire operating 517km of Cameroon's 1104km metre-gauge network, has unveiled nine new GPR 3000 locomotives it has acquired as part of a $US 383m modernisation programme.

KENYA Railways has signed an agreement with China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) to extend the 609km standard-gauge line under construction between Mombasa and Nairobi by 120km north to Naivasha.

THE governments of Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania have issued a request for expressions of interest from suitable qualified and experienced firms which have the capacity to finance, design, construct, operate and maintain the proposed 1661km Dar Es Salaam-Isaka-Kigali/Keza-Musongati (DIIKM) railway project as a public-private partnership (PPP).

GHANA plans to rehabilitate the Dunkwa - Awaso branch line of the 340km 1067mm-gauge western main line that links Takoradi, Dunkwa and Kumasi.

TANZANIA has introduced a 1.5% infrastructure development levy on imports to assist the government with raising $US 14.2bn to finance new rail projects and improve existing lines over the next five years.