It is about 15 months to the eagerly awaited commissioning of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line between Mombasa and Nairobi. This is a massive infrastructural project whose total construction cost has been put at Sh327 billion.
Tens of contractors and thousands of hardworking Kenyans in different sections of the 472 km line from Mombasa to Nairobi are currently replacing huge mounds of earth with tonnes of metal that will create the first ever high capacity railway line in the region.
The East African region is a perfect example of how land transport infrastructure like a railway line can revolutionize an economy. For more than a century, the East African Railway gave birth to centres, towns and cities along the corridor and across the region.
The coming of the SGR will thus be a game-changer in transport; it will for instance take a traveller just four and a half hours from Mombasa to Nairobi by rail, reducing time spent on travelling, with cargo train speed of up to 80kms/hr and passenger trains at 120km/hr.
As we move closer to the completion of the first phase of the SGR, it is noble to note that the new network will be vital for business, supply chains and investment in the region.
Once completed, the modern, high capacity Standard Gauge Railway will carry on each train a trailing load of 4,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to 216 TEU containers per trip. This is expected to raise Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product, or total economic production by a material 1.5 per cent.
Governments across the region will be looking to bolster economic growth through regional trade, re-balancing and internationalization of their product lines.
Ugandans will be aiming to broaden their market while at the same time opening a trading funnel that will harness the potential of their landlocked neighbours: Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern DRC.
Beyond connecting the region, SGR will directly impact the mwananchi, through job creation as well as pave way for the regionalization of the workforce.
For the job market, the conversation will move from just providing casual jobs to a higher-value, knowledge intensive employable pool.
Investment in transport infrastructure is a critical part of the government’s solution to economic growth because it delivers real benefits in terms of supporting business interaction, connecting people to jobs, opening up new markets for companies, increasing competition and productivity, and widening the labour market.
While SGR is a national government project, county governments should also view the line as a pathway to growth.
Local road networks should be aligned with the many sub-stations along the line to create feeder channels to the rail.
We need to implement the shared vision from government, the private sector and the general public in order to deliver the kind of growth we want to derive for attainment of Kenya’s Vision 2030, and from the SGR.
Source: Business Daily
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of TradeMark Africa.
