The Nairobi South Station terminal construction is at 69 percent completion rate while overhead cable for power supply at 85 percent completion/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 16 – Local supplies to the first phase of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) as of April 2016 hit Sh65 billion, amounting to 73 percent of the planned amount.
The government targets Sh88 billion of local content to the project.
Speaking during a visit of the SGR construction site at Syokimau, the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Kenya Liu Xianfa says more local suppliers and subcontractors will participate in the construction to achieve a win-win outcome as the project proceeds further.
Liu says the contractor is working on finishing the project by December 2016, six months ahead of schedule.
“The land acquisition is coming to an end with 99.8 percent of the total length available for construction while 68 percent of the overall works have been completed,” he said.
He says the project has so far created over 40,000 local jobs and trained 20,000 Kenya technicians.
Moreover, the contractor, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) is set to build a Railways Training College.
The civil works of the project is 98 percent complete.
Other major works progress includes the track laying with about 430.6 kilometres completed amounting to 91.75 percent of the whole project.
The Nairobi South Station terminal construction is at 69 percent completion rate while overhead cable for power supply at 85 percent completion.
The Communication cable is at 59 percent complete, while Signal Cable is at 58.9 percent complete.
The Mombasa-Nairobi phase of the project is estimated to cost Sh327 billion ($3.8 billion). China Exim Bank will provide 90 percent of the financing while the remaining 10 percent is by the government.
In March 2016, Kenya and the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) signed an agreement for the construction of the Naivasha-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway line under the Kenya SGR Developments Project valued at Sh549 billion.
The move came after the Cabinet approved signing of the commercial contracts between Kenya Railways and China Communications Construction Company.
The four commercial contracts for the development of the four elements of the project include Naivasha- Kisumu, Kisumu-Malaba, Kisumu Port Development and Modernization and expansion of the Inland Container Depot at Embakasi in Nairobi.
The government has secured a loan from the Government of the Peoples Republic of China to support the development of Phase 2A.
The total contract price for this section is US$ 1.5 billion (Sh150billion).
Kenya is constructing a Standard Gauge Railway between Mombasa and Malaba as part of the East African Community protocol for the development of an SGR 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.
Statistic indicates that China and Africa have signed over 243 cooperation agreement valued at US$ 50.7 billion since the Johannesburg Summit last December.
This includes US$46 billion of Chinese direct investment and commercial loans to Africa.
