The Standard Gauge Railway line is set to be upgraded to an electric rail road in four years.
According to the Transport cabinet secretary James Macharia, the upgrade will cost 15 per cent of the total cost spent on the line so far.
“We didn’t want to construct an electric line yet we don’t have a dependable source of electricity. So we had to construct a diesel locomotive line with a provision of upgrading it,” he said, adding that the design of the railway allows for an addition of a single electric line and will not require an overhaul.
The current length of SGR going for 472 kilometres cost approximately Sh328 billion with financing from the China Exim Bank.
The government expects the SGR to transport 22 million tones of cargo a year, 20 million more than the current ordinary rail.
