State rugged terrain doubled cost of sgr. Kenya spends more on railway than her neighbours.
Makes me wonder. Wasn’t a feasibility study done during the initial plan??
This SGR can easily turn into a white elephant because it will be to expensive to ferry goods or passengers using it> The government of the day will pass the cost of loan recovery to the passenger.
Everyone will shun it hence it will be useless.
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The “rugged terrain” ni mifuko za watu
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Warning. Long read coming up!!
Leta leta tuisome.
C+V
Ethiopia is also developing Ethiopia Rail (ER) which will link Addis Ababa to Djibouti.
The importance of the SGR to Kenya is the potential dividend that will arise from bolstering infrastructure in the country. The government expects the project to reduce freight costs from $0.20 per tonne/km to $0.08 per tonne/km. But the SGR is expensive.
The Treasury said the SGR has caused an upward revision of the fiscal deficit from the initial 7.4 per cent of GDP to 12.2 per cent.
Is the approach in the construction of the SGR the most cost effective? A comparison with the ER would be useful.
As early as 2013, experts raised questions about the costing of the SGR—Kenyans are being charged $6.6 million per kilometre compared to $4.9 million per kilometre for Ethiopia’s ER.
This is a concern for as experts have pointed out, there are no major rivers or lakes or big hills to justify the high cost of the SGR.
In addition, parts of the ER will be a double track, and not a single track as the SGR is in its entirety. The SGR freight will have an average speed of 80kph while the ER will go up to 120kph.
Experts say it is doubtful those speeds will be reached by the SGR because it is a single track and stoppages will be needed to allow other trains to pass.
The SGR passenger train will have an average speed of 120kph while the ER will have an average speed of 160kph with future provision for 225kph.
Questions also arise as Kenya is spending more to buy its trains and rolling stock than Ethiopia.
Ethiopia has also been smarter in regard to reaping human development dividends from rail construction. It has been using the development to build domestic technical capacity.
Reports indicate that foreign contractors conduct training for local staff at the Institute of Technology in Addis Ababa University.
Further, the Ethiopian government is sending promising undergraduates to Russia, India and China to continue their education.
Indeed, the Ethiopian government is doing all it can to ensure that the next phases of the ER and other rail network projects will be carried out entirely by Ethiopian enterprises. Are there such plans and activities going on in regard to Kenya’s SGR?
The basic sense one gets when comparing the SGR to the ER is that Ethiopia has been able to get a better deal overall and is leveraging the experience to build domestic capacity and reduce future dependence on external contractors for rail construction.
Kenya, on the other hand, has agreed to a plan that appears not to be cost effective and there have been no indications Kenya will use SGR construction to build domestic capacity.
In short, the ER is cost-effective and it will transform domestic capacity while the SGR is expensive with no marked improvement in domestic capacity.[ATTACH=full]23521[/ATTACH]
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What is the difference between the double track and single track that seems to be the thorny issue.
http://www.nairaland.com/attachments/2102162_tnetaddisababatraminterior1_jpegf152743f46d5b01443b47b7bb889cc2d
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train engineers wako wapi… swali kwenyu:D:D
which is the kenyan consultancy that designed the sgr??
http://static.progressivemediagroup.com/uploads/imagelibrary/awash%20and%20woldia.jpgRead the facts first.
Awash Woldia/Hara Gebeya Railway Project is a new railway line being constructed between the Ethiopian towns Awash and Woldia.
Ethiopian Railway Corporation (ERC), the owner of the project, is investing $1.7bn in the project. The new line will be completed by December 2015.
The new railway line will connect northern Ethiopia with central region. It will also link the northern and eastern transportation network of Ethiopia.
[SIZE=5]Background, purpose and benefits of the Awash Woldia/Hara Gebeya railway project[/SIZE]
“The new railway line will connect northern Ethiopia with central region.”
The Ethiopian Government has been undertaking several transportation projects as part of a five-year growth and transformation plan (GTP), which aims to enhance the transportation network within the country by connecting to adjacent countries and ports. It will provide efficient mobility and improve the export and import activities, boosting the economic development. National Railway Network of Ethiopia (NRNE) is one of the several projects constituted in the plan.
ERC has recognised eight railway routes as significant for development. These routes will have a total length of approximately 5,060km including buffer.
NRNE projects will be implemented in two phases. Phase I is composed of five railway projects which include Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway Project, Mekele - Woldia/Hara Gebeya - Semera-Tadjourah Port Railway Project, Addis Ababa - Ijaji-Jimma-Dima including Jimma - Bedele Railway Project, Awash-Kombolcha-Hara Gebeya Railway Project and Mojo-Shashemene-Arbaminich-Weyto Railway Project.
Phase II includes six projects, Jimma-Guraferda-Dima diorected to Boma , Ijaji-Nekemet-Assosa-Kumuruk, Mekele-Shire, Fenoteselam-Bahirdar-Wereta-Woldia, Wereta Azazo-Metema and Adama-Indeto-Gassera-Ginir.
[SIZE=4]Related project
Algiers Metro, Algeria[/SIZE]
Algiers Metro was inaugurated on 31 October 2011 after nearly three decades of development. It is Algeria’s first metro system and the second metro transport system in Africa. The metro serves three million inhabitants of the city of Algiers, carrying 300,000 passengers every day.
[SIZE=5]Line routes and benefits of the Awash Woldia/Hara Gebeya railway project[/SIZE]
The new Awash Woldia/Hara Gebeya Railway Project is an extension project that will connect to Addis Adaba - Djibouti railway line. Awash railway station lies along the railway line from Addis Adaba to Djibouti.
Addis Adaba - Dijbouti is the primary transportation link for mobility of goods and people. The route is also used for import and export purposes through Djibourti port. The 389km-long single railway line will start from the north east of Awash and progress northwards through Kombolcha to reach Woldia.
The line will also link with Woldia/Hara Gebeya- Semera-Dicheto-Elidar project which will connect northern Ethiopia with Tadjurah port in Djibouti. The Woldia/Hara Gebeya- Semera-Dicheto-Elidar project will provide second transport link to the port and enhance the country’s development. All the current design works are subject to changes according to the final design, however.
[SIZE=5]Infrastructure of ERC’s new railway line[/SIZE]
The Awash Woldia / Hara Gebeya railway line will involve the construction of 389km of new rail line, 40km maintenance lines and 18km station lines. It also includes construction of new tunnels, three terminal stations with two platforms, and six intermediate stations with a single platform. The total length of the railway line will thus be 447km.
“The new line will be completed by December 2015.”
An operation control tower will also be built exclusively for the line. The overhead catenary will provide electricity for the main railway line, depot and stabling lines. Two maintenance facilities, warehouse, generator rooms, maintenance and painting workshop, mechanical service building, wash services, service and commercial buildings will be constructed adjacent to the railway stations.
[SIZE=5]Contractors involved with ERC’s new $1.7bn railway line[/SIZE]
In June 2012, ERC signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract worth $1.7bn for the Awash Woldia/Hara Gebeya railway project with Yapi Merkezi, a company based in Turkey. The contractual terms mandate to complete the construction of the new line within 42 months.
Yapi Merkezi is one of the world’s leading transportation infrastructure companies with a vast experience in rail systems. In addition to the $1.7bn contract signed in Ethiopia, Yapi Merkezi has also successfully completed the Dubai Metro Project, Casablanca tramline and Ankara - Konya high speed rail line, which make Yapi Merkezi a world brand in rail systems.
NOTE
Ethiopia is doing as metro system which is electric compared to SGR.
You already know what they’ll do, don’t you? They’ll simply say all cargo beyond a certain weight must be transported by rail. Voila!
The SGR might be like those matatus that go to town full capacity but on their way back inakuwanga empty. The town bound passengers watagharamia iyo safari empty ya kurudi
trailers and fuel tankers already do this
For SGR, this shouldn’t be the case.
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Which brings us to the eternal question, do you build infrastructure first to attract business or do you build infrastructure to meet the demand of existing businesses?
single track - the same tracks are used by trains going either direction so lay bys are needed to allow trains to “pass” …double track - two sets of tracks one for each direction, obviously the best choice
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SGR will help us out to bring down the prices of imported goods, the real issue is that if it was overpriced by even an eighth then we are talking about losing out on constructing a thika road style highway.
The cost dynamics for ER and SGR are different. Cost quoted above for ER is for the light transit rail system (which is already operational) equivalent to the rail component of the proposed Nairobi Urban Transport Improvement PRoject.Also consider land compensation cost in SGR case.
SGR can’t be electrified now coz of inadequate power supply but provision for this has been factored in the design and construction.
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It works both ways eg 2nd phase of SGR has influenced setting up of business park in Naivasha.
Also SGR route to Kampala is meant to open up southern rift and Nyanza where it will pass on the way to Kampala.
What happened to @msalame grace, she was really passionate about the SGR and trains.
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