Kenya Railways has announced plans to start upgrading the old railway line running from Nairobi to Kisumu. The upgrade is set to begin on 1st August 2020 and will take eight months to attain completion.
According to the Kenya Railways managing director, Philip Mainga, Kenya Railway engineers and National Youth Service will refurbish the line, a move that seeks to cut the cost of upgrading, adding that Kenya will fund the upgrade solely from internal resources.
The 216 km line will connect to the recently refurbished KSh3 billion Kisumu port, in addition to linking with the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line in Naivasha to enable seamless cargo movements to the neighbouring countries. These include Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo on ships via Lake Victoria.
Uganda is also planning to start refurbishing its old rail network to boost bulk cargo transportation, after failing to secure $2.2 billion in Chinese funding for a new SGR line. Kenya also dropped its plan to extend the SGR to Kisumu and later on to the Ugandan border after failing to secure a multi-billion shilling loan from China.
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