Kenya to have second port (plus railway)

[John Ashworth]

Kenya says to have second port by 2011

Wed Apr 15, 2009 11:10am GMT

NAIROBI, April 15 (Reuters) - Kenya said on Wednesday it would start building a second port at the coastal town of Lamu next year and hopes the first ships to call there by the end of 2011.

The government has already allocated $45 million to the project, Transport Minister Chirau Ali Mwakere said, adding the funds had come from the controversial sale of the Grand Regency, a luxury Nairobi hotel.

"It is a port which will be bigger than Mombasa (port). Construction work according to our schedule should start in Feb. 2010," Mwakwere told reporters.

"Everything remaining equal, we should have the first ships calling at the Port of Lamu in Manda Bay by the end of 2011, when we shall have two or three berths ready to pick up or deliver cargo."

The project will be part of a broader $22 billion development plan that includes railway lines, a pipeline, roads and airports to open up the northern part of the country and link east Africa's biggest economy with Sudan and Ethiopia.

Mwakwere said there will be a highway and rail link joining Lamu with Lokichoggio, close to the border with Sudan in the northwest, and another to link it with Moyale in the north, close to the Ethiopian border.

"Ethiopia has already constructed their railway line to Moyale and ours is under construction," he said.

There will also be major airports in Lamu, Isiolo, Lokichoggio and Moyale, the minister said, and an oil pipeline linking Sudan to the port.

Southern Sudan, which is due to vote in a referendum in 2011 on whether it wants to separate from the north, hopes to export some of its oil. Kenya also wants to import some of that oil.

Mwakwere said the government had already advertised for companies interested in the port project.

"In 45 days we shall examine which company which will do the investigative study and the design. We are sure by February next year, some construction work should have started," he said. (Reporting by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura; Editing by Victoria Main)

© Thomson Reuters 2009

[M. Hardy-Randall]

This topic was being discussed in EAR&H HQ when I was there in the 60s' but was rejected due to cost and major problems with the proposed route for the connecting line to Nairobi.

I wonder if this is going to be filed alongside the brickwall around Lake Victoria proposal.

Malcolm.

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

It will be tragedy for that part of the coast if they.

I remeber Lamu with no vehicles at all!