Nairobi – (BD) Kenya is selling to Uganda the reduced cost of clearing and moving goods from the Mombasa Port to Uganda, and the standard gauge railway, to revive its bid to extend the line to its neighbour.
Uncertainty hit the Kenya-Uganda SGR project after Uganda said it was considering building a railway through Tanzania. In a bilateral meeting between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni at State House, Nairobi, Kenya sold the project as the answers to its neighbour’s transport needs.
It is estimated that more than 50 percent of the cargo handled at the Port of Mombasa is destined for markets like Uganda, with 11.2 million tonnes of cargo moved between the two nations annually
On Tuesday, Mr. Kenyatta said that the completion of the second container terminal increased the port’s overall capacity to 1.65 million containers, with its capacity expected to hit 2.7 million containers per year once the three-stage project is complete.
“The modernization programme has resulted in reduced average time to import and export goods through the port of Mombasa — from 11 days to under 3.5 days, and work for even greater efficiency continues,” State House said in a statement on Tuesday.
