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Kenya has opened a major new railway between the port city of Mombasa and the capital, Nairobi, 18 months early.
Photo taken on May 10, 2017 shows the Emali station on Kenya's Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).
The 480 km railway linking Kenya's largest port city Mombasa to capital Nairobi, slated to be officially launched on Wednesday, will be a key infrastructure project that will push forward the East Africa nation's modernization drive, a senior company executive said Monday.
"The launch of the standard gauge railway (SGR) will undoubtedly contribute to Kenya's economic and social development as well as improve people's livelihoods and lead the country to prosperity," said Chen Yun, vice-president of China Communications Construction Company, parent company of the China Road and Bridge Corporation which built the mega-project.
In an interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of a ceremony held here in Nairobi for the release of the company's social responsibility report regarding the SGR project, Chen said that the company has endeavored to build the Kenya SGR project into a quality project that will endure the test of time. "The Mombasa-Nairobi railway is also a way of cooperation, mutual benefits and prosperity," Chen said.
According to the report, the SGR project has created more than 46,000 jobs for the locals and the number of local workers who received training hit 45,000, gaining the much-needed skills and technical knowhow to help them grow. The SGR project is also estimated to be adding 1.5 percentage points to Kenya's GDP growth, a figure the Kenyan government reckons with.
As Africa strives for integration, Chen believed that Africa will continue to see the birth of many more railway projects on the continent.
He revealed that during a recent talk between him and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, the president said he would promote SGRs in the east Africa region so that the region can upgrade and renovate existing railways and enhance transport capacity.
Chen added that the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China, which aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes, will also provide immense opportunities for African countries, and companies involved.
A train runs on Kenya's Mombasa-Nairobi Railway on May 29, 2017. The 480 km railway linking Kenya's largest port city Mombasa to capital Nairobi, slated to be officially launched on May 31, will be a key infrastructure project that will push forward the East Africa nation's modernization drive, a senior company executive said Monday.
The $3.2bn (£2.5bn) Chinese-funded line is the country's biggest infrastructure project since independence.
It took three-and-a-half years to build, using Chinese track-laying technology.
The line is supposed to eventually connect South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi with Mombasa.
It is the country's first new major railway in more than a century.
The journey from Mombasa to Nairobi by train will now take four-and-a-half hours, compared to nine hours by bus or 12 hours on the previous railway.
The tickets work out cheaper than buses.
An economy class ticket will cost 900 Kenyan shillings ($9; £7), while a business class ticket will be 3,000 Kenyan shillings.
The nearest equivalent bus is ticket is an extra 400 shillings.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said at the launch of the railway line that it signalled a new chapter in Kenya's history:
"A history that was first started 122 years ago when the British, who had colonised this nation, kicked off the train to nowhere... it was then dubbed the 'Lunatic Express'."
"Today... despite again a lot of criticism we now celebrate not the 'Lunatic Express' but the Madaraka [named after the day Kenya's attained internal self-rule) Express that would begin to reshape the story of Kenya for the next 100 years."
The government says that it needs to invest in infrastructure to attract foreign investment.
(BBC & CHINA DAILY)
