No, Standard Gauge Railway project isn’t falling apart
By HILARY KIMUYU
Kenya Railways Corporation has discredited claims on social media that the Standard Gauge Railway project is falling apart. This comes after the emergence of unverified online photos showing a leaning pillar in the mega project.
“Forget that falsehood that is doing rounds on social media, this is the actual face of the SGR. The project is about firm foundations, concrete firm structures,” the company said in a Facebook post.
The corporation went ahead to post several pictures captioned, “Lie vs Truth. These structures wouldn’t bend that easily.”
According to Kenya Railways, the Standard Gauge Railway mega project is ahead of schedule at 60% completion.
Currently, the project has offered direct employment to 30,000 locals stationed at the head office, branch offices and construction sites.
BIGGEST PROJECT
Local industries such as steel, cement, sand and electricity have also benefited from this project.
An estimated 15,000 people are acquiring skills that will be suitable for self – employment even after the construction is completed.
When complete, the high capacity speed trains designed for double – stacking of containers will decongest the Port of Mombasa.
The new railway line constitutes the first phase of the SGR project that aims to connect Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.
The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR is the biggest infrastructure project in Kenya since independence. It will shorten the passenger travel time from Mombasa to Nairobi from more than ten hours to a little more than four hours. Freight trains will complete the journey in less than eight hours.
Construction of the 609km-long line began in October 2013 and is scheduled to be completed by December 2017.
