Counties urged to give land for Lapsset project

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Twelve counties that fall within the Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) project have been urged to provide land to support its implementation.
The project is intended to include a port, new roads, a railway and a pipeline which will give landlocked South Sudan and Ethiopia access to the Indian Ocean.

Twelve counties that fall within the Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) project have been urged to provide land to support its implementation.

Lapsset Corridor Development Authority chairman Francis Muthaura said the implementation of the Sh2.2 trillion project will mainly depend on availability of land.

Mr Muthaura said that surveyors had already been dispatched to map out the project area.

“County governments are indispensable partners in making this project economically viable. If we synergise our resources we will be able to catalyse its completion,” he said.

Mr Muthaura was speaking on Wednesday during the Lapsset Meru County stakeholders’ consultative visit. The project is intended to include a port, new roads, a railway and a pipeline which will give landlocked South Sudan and Ethiopia access to the Indian Ocean.

The overall price of the project, first proposed in the 1970s and expected to have been completed by 2030, has been put at $25.5 billion (Sh2.2 trillion).
Among reasons delaying the project is high compensation demands by landowners.

The project entails construction of a new sea port at Manda and standard gauge railway lines from Lamu to South Sudan with branches to Nairobi and Ethiopia from a hub in Isiolo.

It will also see the construction of a highway from Lamu to Isiolo with an extension to Nadapal/Nakodok in South Sudan and another link to Addis Ababa through Moyale.