Cost comparison SGR Kenya vs SGR Tanzania

Geza Ulole said:
Mabati roofs r plenty on ur SGR! BTW I don't see the essense of putting a concrete shed at a waiting platform!

sgr-5.jpg
Click to expand...
Hizo zetu phase 1 ilijengwa na CRBC ni carbon fiber not iron mabati like yours. Phase 2A imejengwa na CCCC ambao wanaeka concrete canopy..... You say you don't see the point of such but in other words you are saying you acknowledge that your station platform are just cheap juakali sh!t even my local welder can build such a shade..

And to answer your point. This is why they said your rail standards will be cheap in the beginning but expensive in the long run.. how often do you think you will need to replace those mabati shades during the 100 years life span of the rail?
While on the other hand, the concrete platform will stand for those 100 years only requiring some repainting after every decade or so.

# we shall see who will have the last laugh
 
Nairobi to Naivasha SGR lauching tommorow, Wednesday 16th oct, on schedule and within budget. Second longest tunnel in Africa and 3rd longest bridge in Africa over Nairobi national park!
 
Kifaru_07 said:
Nairobi to Naivasha SGR lauching tommorow, Wednesday 16th oct, on schedule and within budget. Second longest tunnel in Africa and 3rd longest bridge in Africa over Nairobi national park!
Click to expand...
Get a difference btn words Bridge n viaduct
 
Tanzania, Zambia resolve to finance recapitalization of Chinese-built railway
Source: Xinhua| 2019-10-15 00:29:47|Editor: ZX


DAR ES SALAAM, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The governments of Tanzania and Zambia have resolved to finance the re-capitalization of the ailing Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), a statement by TAZARA said on Monday.

The statement said the decision to recapitalize the 1,860-km Chinese-built railway line running from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to New Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia was made on Saturday by the 63rd meeting of TAZARA council of ministers in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

The statement said the re-capitalization of TAZARA will begin after the TAZARA Board of Directors completed a bankable business plan by March 2020.

The statement said the TAZARA council of ministers comprising of ministers responsible for transport, finance and industry in Tanzania and Zambia noted with concern the poor performance of the railway line.

"The performance of the TAZARA remained below breakeven point and therefore requiring immediate action to improve the situation," the statement quoted the ministers as saying.

The ministers said in order to foster business for TAZARA, preferential policies will have to be passed in the respective countries for at least 30 percent of bulky cargo to be transported by rail, said the statement.

TAZARA was constructed as a turnkey project between 1970 and 1975 through an interest-free loan from China, with commercial operations starting in July 1976.

 
Kenya to launch railway to ‘nowhere’

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 16 2019

Standard Gauge Railway

The newly built Standard Gauge Railway line that passes through Maai Mahiu to the Suswa station. The project will be launched on October 16 although the entire line to Naivasha has not been completed. PHOTO | MACHARIA MWANGI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary
  • The phase extending the line from Nairobi to Naivasha is estimated to have cost Ksh150 billion ($1.5 billion).
  • Kenya needed Ksh380 billion ($3.8 billion) to complete the line to Kisumu.
  • The passenger line expected to start operations Wednesday will ferry travellers to only four of the 12 stations.

DAILY NATION

By DAILY NATION
More by this Author

The Kenyan government plans to launch an expensive railway line that ends in the middle of nowhere after the Chinese government pulled the plug on funding for the next phase.

Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said the government will launch four infrastructure projects on Wednesday, among them the double-decker Nairobi express highway, phase two of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line to Suswa in Kenya's Rift Valley, a water project in Kimuka and an Inland Container Depot terminal in Maai Mahiu.

Details of the launch being organised by the Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU) have been highly guarded, a big departure from the glamour that came with the launch of the Mombasa-Nairobi line.

Mr Macharia said that after the launch of the express highway that will connect Cabanas to Westlands in the capital Nairobi, President Uhuru Kenyatta will go to the SGR Nairobi station before heading to Ongata Rongai, Ngong and Maai Mahiu on the outskirts of Nairobi. He will later commission the Suswa station.

“We shall first launch the passenger service and the freight one will come after two months,” he said in an interview with the Nation.

The phase extending the line from Nairobi to Naivasha is estimated to have cost Ksh150 billion ($1.5 billion). However, the entire line has not been completed.

The passenger line expected to start operations today will ferry travellers to only four of the 12 stations—Ongata Rongai, Ngong, Maai Mahiu and Suswa.

The Nation has learnt that even the Chinese contractors who build the line are also groping in the dark, with a source familiar with the project saying they had been told that “their presence may not really be required”.

Wilderness
In what is set to be one of the biggest challenges to face the line, the government is staring at a line that ends in the wilderness, kilometres away from any major town or population that could have fully utilised the line.

The lack of enough volumes of cargo has also made things worse for the line. This has forced the government to start with the passenger line, and shelve the cargo side to a later date.

This is the opposite of what happened with the Mombasa-Nairobi line where the cargo line started operations months before the official launch.

A passenger line, the world over, cannot operate profitably without being subsidised by the cargo side of the business. It was hoped that the Naivasha special economic zone would open up the region and bring in new demand for cargo.

But this is yet to be actualised. The long-drawn-out fight over delays in compensation for land between landowners and the government also saw the project suffer massive delays.

The fact that travellers to Naivasha and Nakuru cannot use the line in its current form only makes it harder. The last time the Nation visited the line, the stretch from Maai Mahiu to Naivasha was not yet complete.

Viability
But the biggest setback for the line came in April when the Chinese government refused to fund the rest of the line to Kisumu over viability concerns given that Uganda was not yet on board and Kenya on its own lacks enough cargo to make the line feasible.

Kenya needed Ksh380 billion ($3.8 billion) to complete the line to Kisumu. Instead, the Chinese government only parted with Ksh40 billion ($400 million) for upgrading the metre-gauge railway between Naivasha and Malaba as a compromise.

It is not clear why the Chinese government decided to fund Phase 2A of the line to Naivasha and abandon it halfway through, but it came as a slap on the face of the Kenyan government, given that it had been allowed to have its way on dictating terms on phase one, having done almost everything from the feasibility study and construction to buying locomotives, supervision and operation.

But when the time came, it waved the “show sufficient proof of viability” card in the faces of a government delegation that had been invited to Beijing.

To save the situation, the government resorted to connecting the new line to the old line at Naivasha, which will mean that cargo and passengers will have to be moved to the metre-gauge line while in transit.

This comes at a time when truckers are up in arms protesting a move by the Transport ministry to force cargo owners to use the SGR, a directive that they argue fails the test of a free-market economy.

www.theeastafrican.co.ke

Kenya launches second phase of SGR line as China cuts funding

Phase two of Standard Gauge Railway line ends in the wilderness, kilometres away from any major town.
www.theeastafrican.co.ke www.theeastafrican.co.ke

MY TAKE
hongereni majirani...
 
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