RVR workers at Changamwe station in Mombasa supervise the welding of new railway lines in August, 2012. RVR says it has completed the repairs of the Mombasa-Nairobi track. Photo/FILE
What you need to know:
The rail firm said it had built 73km of new railway track between Mombasa and Nairobi at Sh1.7 billion and the upgrade had cut cargo delivery time between the two counties by six hours.
The firm said the 73km stretch had been responsible for 60 per cent of disruptions on the Mombasa-Nairobi track.
Rift Valley Railways (RVR) Tuesday said it completed the repairs of the Mombasa-Nairobi track as the operator races to strengthen relationships with the government that has threatened to review its concession agreement.
The rail firm said it had built 73km of new railway track between Mombasa and Nairobi at Sh1.7 billion and the upgrade had cut cargo delivery time between the two counties by six hours.
This comes as Transport Secretary Michael Kamau put RVR on notice, saying that the performance of the rail business had failed to live up to expectations of the Kenya and Uganda governments seven years since the operator won the concession.
RVR won a 25-year contract to run the 2,352km Kenya-Uganda railway in November 2006 on the cargo business and a five-year contract for the passenger unit whose tenure was extended by months in 2008.
“The Sh1.7 billion investment in building this new stretch of railroad is a significant milestone as this railway line had been ailing for lack of investment for over a decade prior to the concession,” said RVR executive vice chairman Brown Ondego.
The firm said the 73km stretch had been responsible for 60 per cent of disruptions on the Mombasa-Nairobi track.
This is part of the overhaul of the dilapidated track between Mombasa and Uganda and would see the rebuilding of 360km of damaged sections, repair of wagons and locomotives through a Sh13.9 billion ($164 million) debt.
“We have had a seven-year concession, and since it started cargo transported by rail has gone down from 15 per cent to three per cent, we will look at the concession again and see whether it is working,” Mr Kamau said recently.
On the passenger business, the government has opted to offer the rail firm shorter one-year contracts, which gives the State a window to consider new operators should it be dissatisfied with RVR.
The passenger services have not recorded any significant improvement.
Official statistics show that the total distance covered by the operator dropped from 389 million kilometres in 2009 to 283 million in 2011 and 221 million last year.
Performance in the cargo business has also trailed that of the Mombasa port, which is expected to be the main source of RVR freight volumes.
Last year, trains hauled about 1.62 million metric tonnes of cargo while the Mombasa port handled 21.9 million metric tonnes.
The rest of the freight was handled by trucks, which have been blamed for the destruction of roads.
