Economy
The Treasury signs a loan of 2 billion dollars for the double derivation of the East
Friday, October 15, 2021
The Secretary of the Cabinet of the National Treasury, Ukur Yatani, during an interview last in his office. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Summary
- The state has borrowed Sh2 billion to undertake the double construction of Nairobi’s busy Eastern Bypass, which runs from Mombasa Road to Thika Superhighway.
- Treasury documents presented in Parliament show that the loan, signed on September 28, 2021, has yet to be disbursed to the government.
- The Treasury did not disclose who financed the loan in its incremental spending program in accordance with Article 203 of the Constitution.
The state has borrowed Sh2 billion to undertake the double construction of Nairobi’s busy Eastern Bypass, which runs from Mombasa Road to Thika Superhighway.
Treasury documents presented in Parliament show that the loan, signed on September 28, 2021, has yet to be disbursed to the government.
The Treasury did not disclose who financed the loan in its incremental spending program in accordance with Article 203 of the Constitution.
The Ministry of Transport is trying to expand the Eastern Bypass into a highway.
The road runs from Mombasa Road through City Cabanas, Pipeline, Njiru and Thika Road onwards.
The billion shillings project aims to alleviate the growing traffic jam on the key road linking motorists from the busy Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and the Mombasa-Nairobi Highway to the Thika superhighway, bypassing the congested district central business.
The road, one of Vision 2030’s infrastructure projects, was designed during the mandate of the Grand Coalition government. Construction of the 32 km beltway began in 2013.
Transportation Cabinet Secretary James Macharia previously told Business Daily that the doubling of the Eastern Bypass should have been done from day one.
“They shouldn’t have done that trail without duplicating it,” Macharia said.
The highway duplication is part of 11 infrastructure projects that the Kenyan government delegation showed to global investors during the two-day Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, China, in May 2017.
Other projects were the expansion of the south and north detours.
Chinese companies have increasingly won billions of shillings road contracts in Kenya.
China Roads and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) is at the end of the completion of the $ 59 billion Nairobi Expressway.
CRBC is building the 27.1km double-decker highway with funds from private sources that will be recovered through the collection of tolls by its subsidiary, Moja Expressway, which will operate the highway for nearly 30 years.
Motorists will have the option of using the highway to escape heavy traffic for a fee that depends on the size of the vehicle and the distance traveled.
Most of the mega highway projects currently underway across the country have been financed with loans from the China Exim Bank. The transport ministry is set to complete works on four beltways, and motorists are expected to start using the roads from January next year.
The East, West, North and South bypasses will significantly reduce the time motorists spend in endless traffic jams while traveling through the CBD to their destinations.
The southern ring road allows traffic from Mombasa, bound for western Kenya and Uganda, to bypass central Nairobi, reducing traffic congestion in the city’s central business district. The detour begins at the junction of the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway and the Likoni Highway, about 10 kilometers southeast of the city center and runs through Nairobi National Park to Kiambu County.
The northern detour starts from the Ruaka Mall on Limuru Road, passing over Banana Road through the Runda and Thome properties. The 31 km bypass continues to Kahawa West and finally to Ruiru, via Kamae, where it joins the Eastern Bypass.
The Western Bypass will allow motorists to pass through several cities, including Guitaru, Wangige, Ndenderu and Ruaka.
The link is the fourth and final ring road in the Nairobi Ring Road network master plan.
The project also includes the construction of 17.31km service roads and the construction of seven-grade interchanges at Guitaru, Lower Kabete, Wangige, Kihara, Ndenderu, Rumenye and Ruaka.