Chinese company picked to manage modern trains set for June 1 launch

A Chinese firm selected to launch Kenya’s high-speed trains is set to be inaugurated on June 1.

Kenya Railways chief executive Atanas Maina, however, said that trials for the 120 kilometre per hour passenger trains and the 80 kilometre per hour cargo trains will start soon to ensure things are in order ahead of the commissioning.

The newly built standard gauge railway (SGR) will be managed by China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) from a digital platform logged onto closed circuit television cameras at strategic locations along the newly built 427 kilometre railway line.

Mr Maina said that plans were at an advanced stage to include the operations and maintenance team made up of CCCC managers and supervisors working jointly with 3,000 full time Kenyan professionals handling various chores.

The new business will see Kenyans, currently undergoing training locally at Railway Training Institute and at various railway technology universities in China, participate in the technology transfer programme that will eventually see CCCC leave the scene for the Kenyans to take over.

Among those planned for hiring are locomotive drivers, technicians and station operators as well as CCTV operators and signallers among others.

Capacity

The new line has seen 33 new sub-stations and nine stations built along the line in eight counties to support a seamless flow of traffic.

The railway is projected to help increase cargo haulage from the current 1.5 million tonnes to 22 million tonnes annually.

Mombasa port handles 24.8 million tonnes of imported cargo annually which is redistributed across factories and retail chains within Kenya and into landlocked countries across East Africa.

The SGR is hailed as the main driver for economic growth across East Africa helping reduce manufacturing costs by 50 per cent with the benefits passed over to consumers thereby making Kenyan goods competitive on a global scale.