East Africa to see $287m investment in Mombasa-Kampala railway line
Rift Valley Railways (RVR) was to spend $287-million over the next three years on the refurbishment of the railway system between Mombasa, in Kenya, and Kampala, in Uganda, said RVR executive vice chairperson Brown Ondego on Tuesday.
Speaking in Johannesburg at AfricaRail 2013, he noted that the private consortium had already spent $45-million on renewing the East African rail system, which was more than 100 years old.
Part of the RVR capital expenditure would be used to refurbish locomotives, while the 1 331 km railway line would also receive 70 km of new track.
Speaking to Engineering News Online on the sidelines of the conference, Ondego said the system was currently only working at 10% of its eight-million-ton to ten-million ton-a-year capacity.
RVR was hopeful that the next three years’ capital injection would see the system operate at 40% of its capacity, at around four-million tons a year, which would return it to levels last seen in 1972.
Around 96% of RVR’s business was cargo (40% containers, 20% liquid bulk, 15% grains) and around 4% passengers.
Containers were responsible for around 60% of RVR’s revenue.
RVR is made up of Egyptian shareholding (51%), as well as Kenyan (34%) and Ugandan (15%) shareholding.
Ondego said he was “very happy” with the RVR concession, which kicked off in 2008, but did question the current fee structure.
He said RVR was paying 11.1% of its topline revenue to government structures, while also paying a fuel subsidy – effectively subsidising the rail system’s road competitors.
He believed it was necessary for RVR to “have discussions with government” on how it could restructure this deal so the railway system could better serve the East African economy.
“We must have an incentive to invest.”
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
Booyco Electronics, South African pioneer of Proximity Detection Systems, offers safety solutions for underground and surface mining, quarrying,...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Rooted in the hearts of South Africans, combining technology and a quest for perfection to bring you a battery of peerless standing. Willard...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
