17 glorious photos of the multi-billion SGR project that will get you excited

The passenger and cargo transportation project which will connect Mombasa, the largest port in the East African region and Kenya’s capital city Nairobi will be commissioned in June 2017 ahead of commercial operations in January 2018.

Aside from making transport easier, the railway will create jobs for Naivasha residents where the dry port is set to be stationed.

Unfortunately, despite the efforts to beat the deadline and complete the railway in time, phase Two of the 63 Billion Kshs project recently came to a halt. This was after the National Environment Tribunal ordered the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) to pause the project until proper environmental valuation on the route was done.

This order came after claims that the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) issued an environment impact assessment license allowing the project to continue under ‘suspicious and hasty circumstances’.

Also Read: Construction of standard gauge railway (SGR) stopped

The Kenya Coalition for Wildlife Conservation and Management (KCWCM) who challenged the construction of Phase 2 of the project went on to claim that the issuing had been done without proper consultation of institutions in charge of wildlife and environment conservation.

“It is clear when there is an appeal to the tribunal concerning environmental issues; the status quo is maintained until the dispute is determined. Thus, this is to direct that all activities relating to the construction of Phase 2A of the SGR be stopped until the appeal is determined.” The lobby group said in a statement.

Before adding “The report the license is based upon has serious flaws, including being inconsistent with the legal framework governing environment protection. It assumes other agencies will supervise the construction when the contract is exclusively given to a foreign entity.”

Despite the current huddle, the completed part of the SGR project looks really impressive. And when done, the SGR is certainly something we can look forward to as it will not only be a major boost for goods and passenger transport in Kenya but also very aesthetically pleasing.

Just check it out below: