Rift Valley Railways receives Sh5m duty wagons

Rift Valley Railways (RVR) has received 120 new heavy-duty railway wagons meant to increase its haulage capacity.

RVR officials said the wagons, which arrived at the port of Mombasa on Saturday, are part of the 480 wagons the operator plans to purchase to boost its haulage capacity by 50 per cent.

"So far, we have been limited in regards to the volume of freight because of the size and quality of the wagons we inherited, many of which were built more than 40 years ago," said RVR Group Chief Executive Officer Carlos Andrade.

Mr Andrade was among the RVR officials who were at the port to witness the arrival of the wagons from China.

He said the new 120 wagons purchased from China CNR Corporation at Sh5.41 million will increase RVR fleet size and enable to move 60 tonnes on each wagon per trip.

Currently, rail transport accounts for less than five per cent of cargo transported from the port of Mombasa and RVR says the wagons RVR is operating can transport 40 tonnes.

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The new wagons come at a time the Government is racing against time to complete the construction of the standard gauge railway line.

"There is enough cargo for all of us, but we are also trying to remodel our business so that we do not just offer transport for one point to another but the whole logistics required to have cargo delivered to costumers," he said.

Andrade said the new trains will boost transit time from Mombasa to Kampala and lead to the drop in the freight costs by a half.

It costs an average of Sh8, 160 to transport a 40ft container from Mombasa to Kampala and an average of Sh2, 550 to Nairobi.

Andrade pointed out that RVR is currently at the midpoint of a Sh25 billion capital expenditure programme that began in January 2012 to revitalise the railway.

"These rates have come down by 50 per cent since we took over and the new wagons will enable us to reduce circle times to four hours from the current 4-5 days," said Andrade.