Niksta254
JF-Expert Member
- Jul 31, 2017
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Kenya has signed a $240 million (Sh24.4 billion) loan to electrify the standard gauge railway (SGR) in a move that is expected to push it up to scale with rival lines being built in neighbouring Tanzania and Ethiopia.
Money for the upgrade, which has been sourced from a Chinese company, is being funnelled through the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (Ketraco).
Ketraco says in an opinion piece published elsewhere in this newspaper that it signed the financing deal with China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Company Limited (CET), a Chinese government-owned multinational on January 25, paving the way for work to begin.
“Ketraco signed a contract worth $240 million with China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Company Limited (CET) on January 25, 2018,” the parastatal’s managing director Fernandes Barasa says in the opinion piece.
Ketraco says it will use the money to build 14 substations between Mombasa and Nairobi, adding that the main goal of the project is to have the railway run on clean energy and further reduce transport cost.
The electricity will also spur growth of factories, businesses and urban centres along the railway line, Ketraco added.
“The design of the SGR, initially run by diesel-powered locomotives, allows for addition of a single electric line that will be connected to Ketraco’s 482 kilometre 400kV Mombasa-Nairobi transmission line,” the agency said.
The transmission line, billed as the longest and highest voltage transmission infrastructure in East Africa, has a transfer capacity of 1,500 megawatts (MW) which is 200MW shy of the current national demand of 1,700MW.
Chinese firm lends Kenya Sh25bn to electrify SGR - VIDEO
Money for the upgrade, which has been sourced from a Chinese company, is being funnelled through the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (Ketraco).
Ketraco says in an opinion piece published elsewhere in this newspaper that it signed the financing deal with China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Company Limited (CET), a Chinese government-owned multinational on January 25, paving the way for work to begin.
“Ketraco signed a contract worth $240 million with China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Company Limited (CET) on January 25, 2018,” the parastatal’s managing director Fernandes Barasa says in the opinion piece.
Ketraco says it will use the money to build 14 substations between Mombasa and Nairobi, adding that the main goal of the project is to have the railway run on clean energy and further reduce transport cost.
The electricity will also spur growth of factories, businesses and urban centres along the railway line, Ketraco added.
“The design of the SGR, initially run by diesel-powered locomotives, allows for addition of a single electric line that will be connected to Ketraco’s 482 kilometre 400kV Mombasa-Nairobi transmission line,” the agency said.
The transmission line, billed as the longest and highest voltage transmission infrastructure in East Africa, has a transfer capacity of 1,500 megawatts (MW) which is 200MW shy of the current national demand of 1,700MW.
Chinese firm lends Kenya Sh25bn to electrify SGR - VIDEO
