Work on Kenya high-speed railway line on target: company
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E-mail Xinhua, May 1, 2015
Construction work on a standard gauge railway line in Kenya is on target, the Chinese contractor for the project said on Thursday, four months after it kicked off.
China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) said it has cleared 385 kilometers of the 472km-long line.
Julius Li, CRBC's manager for external relations and cooperation of the project, said CRBC has also built 443km access roads that will facilitate the construction work.
"Since last December when the project officially started, we have made a lot of progress on it and we are on course to complete it on time," Li told reporters.
The Chinese company has also built 40.24km of railway subgrade. Construction work on 266 slab culverts and 2 frame culverts has also started.
The project that links the port city of Mombasa with the capital Nairobi is expected to be completed within 42 months.
The railway line is aimed at providing efficient and cost effective rail transport for both freight and passengers - a project that is to build Kenya into a competitive business hub in East Africa and beyond.
Passenger trains will have a speed of 120 kilometers per hour while freight trains will travel at 80 kilometers an hour.
It will take passengers four hours and a half to travel from Mombasa to Nairobi.
Another major milestone, according to Li, has been the operationalization of two factories for the production of railway sleepers and T-beams.
Each factory has the capacity to produce 1.5 beams and 1,000 sleepers a day. The two facilities have so far produced 105,250 sleepers and 148 T-beams, which are key materials in the construction of the railway line.
The factories will remain operational upon project completion and will be used for the production of railway consumables.
In a related development, Kenya Railways manager director Atanas Maina said the railway contractor had programs in place to up the capacity of employees working on the project.
He expected the knowledge transfer to come in handy after the project is completed, with the Kenyan employees working on the project expected to play a critical role in the running and management of the new railway line upon its completion.
There have been plans to extend the railway line to Uganda and Rwanda - subsequent stages for the East Africa railway line, he said.
"The people who have been involved in this project (in Kenya) will be critical in other phases of the Standard Gauge Railway," he said.
The number of employees recruited for the construction of the railway has gone up, with priority being given to people from the counties along its route.
There are about 10,000 employees now for the project, and the number is to hit 30,000 in the peak period.
According to the company, 65 percent of the employees are from local counties and more than 20 percent are women.
As part of their perks, CRBC offers house and transport allowances on a monthly basis. This is in addition to the salaries, which are higher than the average pay in the construction industry.
"We have engaged a major labor union to ensure all the payment and benefits of our employees together with employee representative committee to guarantee their rights and benefits," said Li. Endi
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