State-owned China Communications Construction Co (CCCC) is seeking to obtain operating rights for five years for the China-funded Mombasa-Nairobi railway in Kenya, the first rail project in the East African nation in a century, domestic financial news portal caixin.com reported Monday.
A study team from Kenya is scheduled to visit China soon and the CCCC is confident of passing its review and getting the operating rights, the report said, citing a source close to the CCCC.
The team includes representatives from Kenya's Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Ministry of Finance, Attorney General's Office, Port Authority and railway companies, according to caixin.com.
The railway, which is backed by a Chinese firm, will link the capital Nairobi and the coastal city of Mombasa. Construction is 65 percent complete, and tracks for the main line should be completed by the end of 2016, the caixin.com report said.
Official operations are to begin in January 2018, media reports said.
China Road and Bridge Corp, a subsidiary of the CCCC, is the main contractor.
The 480-kilometer rail link will use many locomotives produced in China, the caixin.com report said.
Domestic train maker China Railway Rolling Stock Corp (CRRC) announced Monday that its subsidiary CRRC Qishuyan Co received a 600 million yuan ($91.4 million) order for 56 internal combustion locomotives from the railway, news portal people.com.cn said.
The Mombasa-Nairobi railway line will be the first foreign rail link to employ Chinese standards, technology, capital and equipment, people.com.cn said.
The link will cost a total of $3.8 billion, with China providing 90 percent of the financing and Ken-ya 10 percent, according to media reports.
