The deal was signed between KeNHA and Bechtel International of San-Francisco with financing being sought from export credit agencies in the United States of America.
KeNHA Director General Peter Mundinia said the signing had opened doors for the next stage of mobilising funds, with the project set to kick off in 2018.
“Bechtel has been selected to build the first high-speed express way in Kenya. The new 473-kilometre route will vastly improve the connectivity, efficiency and safety of road between Nairobi and the country’s main seaport of Mombasa,” he said.
The special road will have controlled access designed with speeds of 120 kilometres per hour, reducing travel time between Nairobi and Mombasa from the current 10 hours to four hours.
Mr Mundinia said this was majorly to complement the growth of industries including building of three economic zones along the road.
‘’The high-speed express way will have four lanes with provision for future increase to six lanes and 19 interchanges,’’ he said.
“It is projected that the 473km highway will be completed in ten sections within the next six years,” said Mundinia.
Hehehe!
Hapa, wacha ijengwe mwanzo, Mbongela! Tutadeal na trivialities baadaye. Usione kama naamini serikali saaana. Walisema daraja la Likoni, mpaka sasa hamna chochote. Ile ya highway ya Athi River to Machakos Junction, hamna chochote. Labda ya Miritini pekee yake ndio kuna some action going on!
scumpaka…u should visit our neigbours in habeshha, wacha iyo tunaongelea apa…they have expressways virtually to all major towns the railway not withstanding.
This is what we need if we are to spur more growth esp. transport,logistics n manufacturing
You see the way the SGR was hyped up you would have thought its the panacea to all of Kenya’s transport problems…
And the Gikuyu have a saying,‘ndìakagwo na wakinì’ meaning that you do not build yours house using your neighbours designs and the like. You build yours using your own abilities. The referrence to Ethiopia does not cut it… We are doing our thing to sort our problems which are unique to us…
But what do I know. Am just a Kenyan who sees things happen and ask why,and when appropriate,why not?
I agree completely in that we need tailor made solns for our problems, I also believe tht the only way to get masses from poverty n hopelessness is manufacturing!!
SEZ,EPZ and such can create milions of jobs. Again agriculture pia inafaa tutilie maanani sana
Mombasa port handles a conservative 10% more cargo every year. Cumulatively in 7 years that cargo increase will be very substantial. There is enough business for SGR, this proposed private express way and the current public road.
Lastly the Ethiopian SGR has yet to start commercial operations. A year later its on trial and they made the mistake of not upgrading the cargo hubs to allow fast evacuation of containers. Ethiopians are complaining of the same. Our SGR trial period has had its fair share of teething problems but is largely successful. 200000 people have used and demand remains high. Ticketing being sorted however we need to await the delivery of all locomotives to be able to introduce more scheduled train slots. Ministry of Transport is fast tracking the handover of SGR operations from KR to John Holland to enable commercial operations to begin earlier than Dec 2017.
