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In a Legal Notice contained in the Kenya Gazette, Macharia said he has revoked the appointments of previous aircraft accident investigators/FILE

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Transport CS James Macharia talks plans to get Nairobi traffic flowing

Is the cost of the SGR inflated because of land speculators?

The cost of land is high yes but it’s not the major factor. It’s been a problem in Mombasa in particular because I can tell you we have handed over all the land to the contractor except 0.2 of the requirement of the track. That 0.2 per cent is remaining in Mombasa. It’s true there’s an issue there. The cost, the demand for compensation in what we call kilometer zero to eight is about Sh8 billion. Almost the same to what was being asked from that kilometer eight to kilometer 472 so obviously there’s a problem there. The meeting which was in Sultan Hamud, chaired by the President asked the National Land Commission to address the issue to make sure we do not rob Kenyans money.

If you compare kilometre for kilometre and you compare the railway we’re building to what is being done elsewhere we actually got a better deal. For example, if you compare the cost per kilometer ours and Ethiopia, ours is what we call class one. The one for Ethiopia is class two yet the cost there is much higher. If you look at the cost of the railway from Malaba to Kampala, the cost per kilometer is way higher than what we have on our side so I think we’re comfortable with that however we are very diligent to make sure no more money needs to be paid than we have to.

How will we power the SGR?
The current configuration is to do diesel. However the protocol signed by the four countries was to do electric. We agreed with our partner states that we can start with diesel but have a provision for electricity. As you know the energy and petroleum sector is actually doing a lot in terms of increasing the capacity for power generation. I think by the time we finish the SGR which will be next year first phase. By the time we finish phase 2A up to Naivasha, I believe the issues about power will have been sorted out. What we’ve asked them to do is that as we develop the power connections they also make sure they provide enough capacity along the way so that whenever we shall decide to switch on to power, with electric traction, that will pose no problem for us. In the long run it’s cheaper to run electric traction for SGR as opposed to diesel. It’s also more environmentally friendly so that provision has been made so that in future we actually use electricity.

Why is the Western bypass costing so much per kilometre?

You have to appreciate the Western bypass is critical to us. No city globally does not have a ring road. You go to London you have North Circular. You go to China they have four ring roads to avoid people going through the city and causing more traffic. We have the North and Southern bypass which is to be completed next month. We have the Eastern bypass which is from Embakassi to Ruiru, then we have the Northern bypass from Ruiru to Ruaka near the Village Market.

The missing link is that bit of Ruaka to join the Nairobi-Naivasha highway. That’s what we’re calling the Western bypass. As you know that is building through the city. Those are built up areas so you can expect the cost to be much higher. However, the cost has not been fully determined. What we signed were commercial agreements to allow us now to negotiate the financing but obviously now we have to look at the numbers very critically to make sure we get value for money but it’s a very critical link to pass through the city which means it must be relatively expensive as opposed to Southern bypass which is going through the park.

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