China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) plans to buy over 5,000 tonnes of steel worth over USD 3.7 million from Kenyan manufacturers for the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway, China.org.cn reports.
“We have tested the steel suppliers’ steel products that are participating in this process in our SGR Project center lab and they have met the requirements for the project,” CRBC Procurement Manager Zhang Chen said.
According to CRBC, 5,250 tonnes of steel bars are expected to meet steel requirements for the construction of culverts and bridges foundation construction for about three months.
Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) members were seeking ways of gaining from the construction of the high speed railway which is expected to create a local workforce of about 30,000.
CRBC is the main contractor of the USD 38 million project. The first phase which beings later this year will see the railway built from Mombasa to Nairobi.
The project is expected to end in 2017. The second will extend that line from Nairobi to Malaba and Kisumu.
Already, Kenya is in talks with Uganda, Rwanda and Sudan to extend the lines for regional interconnectivity due to concerns that most of the cargo traffic will be from Mombasa to Nairobi, but not vice versa.
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