The government has confirmed plans to extend the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from Lamu to Ethiopia.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

The ambitious plan was announced by the Principal Secretary in the State Department of Transport, Mohamed Daghar during the 62nd graduation ceremony of the Railway Training Institute held in Nairobi that saw the graduation of 1,135 students in various diploma courses.

The project, according to the PS, will boost business between the two countries and is expected to connect between 50 and 60 million people.

Aside from linking the railway to Ethiopia, he also reiterated plans to extend the SGR to South Sudan, immediately the Kampala-Malaba Uganda’s SGR, and Kenya’s Naivasha-Kisumu SGR projects, which are to be linked in the aim of improving connectivity within the East Africa region.

📌 What You Need to Know

“There are also plans to build this railway from Malamu all the way to Ethiopia, which will connect us with a market of around 50 to 60 million people, and onwards to South Sudan,” PS Daghar stated. This initiative is part of the broader Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor Program, which stands as Eastern Africa's largest infrastructure initiative and a core pillar of Kenya Vision 2030, aiming to link Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Sudan while boosting GDP by 2 - 3 per cent.

It encompasses a 2,900 km Standard Gauge Railway that will span Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, alongside separate pipelines for crude oil transit and refined petroleum distribution.  Additionally,   anchoring the project is Lamu Port at Manda Bay, a planned 32-berth deep-sea facility, with three berths already operational for Post-Panamax vessels, and complementing this is the 453 km highway that includes the Lamu-Ijara-Garissa route. The corridor also includes three purpose-built resort cities in Lamu, Isiolo, and along Lake Turkana's shores, designed to boost tourism. The High Grand Falls Dam on the Tana River will secure water and power distribution nationwide.

PS Daghar noted that the plans tie into President William Ruto’s broader infrastructure agenda, as outlined during his last State of the Nation Address, which put various infrastructural projects, such as the 139-kilometre Mau-Rironi Summit, as key priority projects. He also used the occasion to appeal to the graduates to enrol at the Railway Training Institute, noting that opportunities exist not just in Nairobi, but also in Kisumu and Mombasa. He added that there are plans to expand the institute's presence to more regions, so that more youth can access the training without necessarily relocating to major cities. “If you have a friend who has not passed through this institute, please tell him to register. I saw in the brochure, if you look at the last page, how to go about it. And if you don't want to do it in Nairobi, you can do it in Kisumu,” stated the PS.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke