Revamped railway transport.

By EMMANUEL BOAZ There will be an improvement in the standards and maintenance of roads in the next six months. This is due to the plan by the Rift valley Railways (RVR) to import Modern rolling stock of locomotive stocks and coaches. “With in six months we will be able to double the number of trains taking freight from Mombasa to Nairobi.” The permanent secretary Ministry of transport Mr Sirus Njiru said. Therefore heavy containers exceeding 28 metric tones will no longer be transported by road. Speaking while receiving railway lines imported from china, Mr Sirus Njiru said that overweight containers that exceed 28 metric tones should be shifted to the rail. “Good business is ordinary business; ordinary business is when you don’t play cat and mouse with operators at weigh bridges and police service. Good business is when you see containers you ought to carry out beyond 28 metric tones don’t attempt to move those by road let those be carried by rail.” Mr Njiru said. Currently the capacity percentage of cargo carried by rail is 4% compared to the 96% carried by road. After this move by the RVR the percentage is expected to rise 10% in the next six to seven months. “We should be able to move back to full designed capacity of existing rail line of 35% of freight even as we progress to a parallel rail line of standard gage” he added. The revamped effective and well costed transport system will enable economy growth whereby it will provide increased speed of cargo transportation by business men and women. The project is among development of lapset corridor project. The nine corridor of Nairobi central business district will start from Nairobi Rail station to connect Ruiru to Thika, Juja towards Kangundo, Jogoo road to Komarock, JKIA to Athi River, Kenyatta road through Karen, after Bomas, Rongai, Kiserian and back to Ngong` road, upper hill to Ngong road, Waiyaki way to Kabete Kikuyu and lastly Gigiri to Limuru. Currently the Syokimau railway station construction is completed joining Syokimau and Nairobi central business district (CBD). A double lane railway has been constructed offering accommodation for passenger and fright traffic. The Nairobi Railway station is also to be renovated as the central harb terminal of Nairobi mass rapid system. Mr Njiru added.

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