Chinese loans for Mombasa to Malaba railway hit Sh1 trillion

Total Chinese loans to Kenya for the construction of the Mombasa to Malaba standard gauge railway will hit the Sh1 trillion mark after Exim Bank of China expressed interest in funding the third phase of the project.

The lender will pump in Sh490 billion to build the railway between Kisumu and Malaba to link Kenya and Uganda, bringing the total cost to Sh1.02 trillion.

This comes at a time when Kenya’s annual debt repayment is set to hit Sh618.5 billion next year, which will see the Treasury spend an estimated Sh40 out of every Sh100 collected from taxpayers on servicing the ballooning loans.

The bill represents a 38.5 per cent jump from Sh446.4 billion spent on public debt this year, compared to projected 12 per cent growth in tax collection; a key indicator of the country’s ability to repay.

The bank is already financing the first leg of the railway from Mombasa to Nairobi at a cost of Sh380 billion with completed work standing at over 90 per cent currently.

The second phase between Nairobi and Naivasha, a stretch of 120 kilometres, will cost Sh150 billion. The higher cost between Nairobi and Naivasha has been attributed to harsh terrain.

As a result, the cost of tunnels will take up 23 per cent of the total cost estimated at Sh18.2 billion. The tunnels will cut through Rift Valley escarpments, making design work more expensive.

Exim Bank will also fund construction of a modern Sh14 billion port on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kisumu as Kenya targets a bigger maritime trade stake with its land locked neighbours.

http://www.businessdaily...473152-rou2jn/index.html

This should be Naivasha to Malaba with total length of 370 kms - Phase 2b 262kms and Phase 3 107kms.

Am sure this deal will be sealed before March 2017 for a few important reasons.

Why "maji yamemwagika?" is it because JP Promised electric train and instead delivered diesel hauled loco?

Me I am (grammar) not even concerned about electric or diesel...what I wanted was a double track to realize the speed,safety and convenience!

You cannot operate "high" speed trains on singol tracks...the technology to man sigol tracks safely is so expensive and involving...thats why you see the colonial guys introduced the "line clear" which is a wooden key in the shape of a tennis rack and much bigger...the train would not proceed to the next statin until the train engineer was handed that key.

But for double tracks, once the trains are moving in the same direction on the same track, you only need to monitor them on some screen and give them max speeds to operate between certain points, much like its done in the airline.

The 4 hour trip promised between Nairobi and Coast is a PIPE DREAM...It will take minimum 8 hour,believe me! And when we have an incident on the sigol track, expect to cancel your trip!

By "high speed" I mean anything above 100km/h...which is very slow when compared to real HIGH SPEED!