This is what Sh327 billion SGR means to Kenyans

Train make a stop over at Mtito Andei Terminus on the way to Mombasa on Monday 29/05/17 before the launch of Standard Gauge Railway(SGR) on Wednesday. PHOTO.BONIFACE OKENDO

President Uhuru Kenyatta today takes the inaugural ride aboard the high-speed Standard Gauge Railway train to Nairobi.

The symbolic journey will bring to an end the use of the adjacent 100-year-old line and a fleet of aged, rickety and unreliable locomotives whose services were associated with delay, unpredictability and costly breakdowns.

The maiden ride brings to an end a 42-month journey that began on November 28, 2013 when President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto graced the ground-breaking ceremony for phase one of the new SGR railway in Mombasa.

Semi-concessional loans

The 472km line is Kenya’s largest infrastructure project since independence, constructed at a cost of Sh327 billion and co-financed through commercial and semi-concessional loans from China and the Government of Kenya.

It is one of the key promises made by the Jubilee administration to improve infrastructure including the upgrading of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Mombasa Port and the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (Lapsset) project.

A press statement from the President’s Strategic Communication Unit said business people used to the efficient services offered by hostesses in various airlines would also “appreciate similar services being provided by the highly-trained and friendly stewardesses whose operating phrase is “etiquette to all the passengers”.

But as the President takes that first ride, his mind will most likely be racing through the economic benefits of the rail, such thoughts coming in the wake of pessimism about the project from the Opposition.

During the ground-breaking ceremony, President Kenyatta talked of the railway creating more than 30,000 direct jobs and an additional 10,000 indirect ones.

Speaking in November 2013, Uhuru said the cost of doing business would come down by reducing transport costs in the region by more than 60 per cent.

“This in turn will spur expanded production and reduce the cost of goods and services. This dividend is the prize we seek for East Africa,” he said.

Proponents of the railway see more development opportunities that go beyond the transportation of goods and services.

Kenya Railways Managing Director Atanas Maina said the new transport corridor would attract industrialists eager to produce goods at lower costs as they can set up their industries at any point along the line.

“The railway must fulfil the economic aspirations of the people of Kenya as a whole, especially the country’s development blueprint, Vision 2030. Industrialisation is key to the economic pillar,” said Maina

Land use along the SGR corridor will be impacted as new real estate developments particularly in the major urban centres take shape.

Mairura Omwenga, who chairs the urban planners chapter at the Architectural Association of Kenya, said the biggest beneficiaries of the new line would include the counties that the railway line traverses.

State-of-the-art

Mr Omwenga cited the state-of-the-art intermediate stations that are expected to become magnets drawing business people from these counties.

“These counties must integrate their plans with the new developments or they will miss out on the virgin opportunities. In fact, there will be scenarios where these new stations might overtake their county headquarters in terms of business opportunities,” he said.

According to Omwenga, counties such as Makueni and Taita Taveta have more tourism opportunities as a result of the rapid travel of visitors to these regions.