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Kenya Railways adds cargo storage space

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A standard gauge railway cargo train. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) has added more cargo storage capacity at its Nairobi Railways station warehouse, offering a major boost to small traders in the country.

The warehouse, dubbed the National Cargo Deconsolidation Centre will enhance capacity of de-consolidated cargo from the initial five 40-foot to fifteen 40-foot containers.

The facility is an expansion of the corporation’s Transit shed launched last November by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

“Today, Kenya Railways launches the new warehouse at the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) Transit shed, Nairobi with an enhanced storage capacity to handle cargo for small traders within Nairobi and its environs,” said the Corporation in statement yesterday.

The corporation said the facility will serve up to about 400 small traders in a day, operating on a 24 hours basis during the post Covid-19 period.

KRC said the number of containers being cleared at the facility is later expected to increase to 300 containers per month during the post-Covid period. The old warehouse has been serving up to 200 small scale traders since its launch.

The launch of the additional cargo storage, clearance facility by KRC comes barely a few months after Mr Kenyatta launched a new cargo storage facility at Nairobi Central Station to enable small traders consolidate their imported cargo individually. The move was meant to allow the small scale traders eliminate the need to use costly clearing agents and the Sh100,000 container deposit.

The clearing process was made easier for those with goods worth $10,000 who can make import declaration on a simplified mobile app while those with goods of customs value above $10,000 have been clearing through a registered clearing agent in the Customs system.

The cargo clearance plan is expected to be faster compared to the initial approach where the consolidated goods were cleared as a single container unit at the Inland Container Depot.

Traders will also have an option of receiving their goods in other towns like Nakuru, Nanyuki and Kisumu when the same set up is implemented.

“We want traders to conduct business in a conducive environment without being harassed so that they can grow and create jobs as they pay more taxes. With this facility, they will not have to pay the $1,000 as container deposits which will subsequently reduce the cost of doing business,” Mr Kenyatta said then.