Kenyatta set to flag off new SGR passenger train service

Nairobi. President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday flagged off a cargo train from Mombasa port which will pull 50 wagons laden with containers bound for the Embakasi Inland Container Depot in Nairobi.

Kenya Railways managing director Atanas Maina said the launch will be a trial run with the actual service expected to start in January next year.

Today, the President is expected to launch the passenger train service between Mombasa and Nairobi which will ferry 1,200 passengers daily both ways.

The cargo train, according to Mr Maina, will transport goods destined to Nairobi and its environs.

The Embakasi depot occupies 29 hectares of land and has a stacking yard with an annual capacity of more than 180,000, twenty-foot containers.

The Ksh22 billion facility will handle big volume of cargo and is expected to play a crucial role in the efficiency of the SGR.

The freight train is projected to haul more than 40 per cent of the 1.1 million 20 feet long containers passing through Mombasa port each year.

Speaking to the Nation by phone on Monday, Mr Maina said the ICD was almost complete.

“We could say construction is at 90 per cent and will be completed in the next few months,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho is expected to attend the inauguration of the railway to be officiated by President Kenyatta.

The ODM deputy party leader said he will point out the ills bedevilling the country to the President during the launch.

Mr Joho said the Jubilee government had inflated the cost of the SGR project by Sh100 billion in an attempt to siphon public funds.

“We want the President to tell us why they had to inflate the price for constructing of SGR by Sh100 billion despite the Grand Coalition government budgeting for the same project at Sh236 billion,” said Mr Joho.

Speaking in Siaya County, the county chief also said the opposition coalition’s plan to set up a parallel tallying centre is in top gear.

The Wednesday launch of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) linking Nairobi to the port city of Mombasa has sent ripples of excitement among Kenyans from all walks of life.(NMG)