RVR To Inject US$30m Into Refurbishment Of Goods Shed

Rift Valley Railways–RVR has embarked on plans to refurbish the Kampala goods shed dashing claims that the facility has been allocated to Amina Hersi, the proprietor of Nakumatt supermarket.

Mark Rumanyika, the RVR General Manager Western says that plans to improve the facility to handle cargo for the Greater East African region are underway. He says that they are in the final stages of sourcing up to 30 million US dollars to start work next year.

According to the architectural designs, the new Goods shed will include offices, warehouses, silos to store grain, a crane gantry, an additional railway track, a loading ramp, oil tanks and a repair workshop. With the plans to redevelop the goods shade, the fate of the 10 acre piece of land that rumored to have been allocated to Amina Hersi hangs in balance.

Earlier Sammy Gachuhi, the then RVR general manager had opposed the proposed giveaway saying they would not allow it.

Gachuhi explained that the goods shed forms part of the core business in the railway’s concession the company is running in Uganda adding that, disposing it off would affect their operations. The Goods shed is one of the pieces of land that caused the removal of former Kampala District Land Board Chairman Yusuf Nsibambi.

In 2005 government gave RVR a 25-year concession to operate the 2,352-kilometer railway line between Kampala in Uganda and the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

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