The port of Mombasa last month achieved the highest ever number of Standard Gauge Railway freight trains to the Inland Container Depot in Embakasi, Nairobi.
A total of 221 cargo trains transported goods to the ICD in June, seven more than the previous highest number of 214 achieved in January.
In February, March, April and May there were 172, 184, 203 and 203 trains respectively transporting goods to the ICD, according to KPA reports.
Kenya Ports Authority MD Daniel Manduku yesterday said for the past six months, they have been doing an average of seven trains per day to Nairobi.
“KPA introduced an ex-hook railage, whereby cargo destined for Nairobi via the SGR is offloaded from the ship and loaded straight to the waiting cargo trains,” Manduku said.
Under the system, the cargo is discharged directly from the vessel onto the SGR wagons to build a block train of 100 containers, which is quickly departed to the ICDN.
Manduku said the new system had eased the congestions previously experienced at the port and given them 100 per cent efficiency on cargo evacuation.
“By the time the ship finishes offloading its cargo, half of it is already in Nairobi ICD,” he said.
For the past six months, a total of 1,197 SGR trains transported cargo to Nairobi, Manduku said.
In that period, KPA has transported a total of 2,019,002 metric tonnes from the port of Mombasa via the SGR freight services.
The total tonnage of cargo transported in January was 365,876 metric tonnes, in February 308,338 tonnes, March had 331,906 and April recorded 356,906 tonnes.
In the month of May, KPA recorded 319,957 tonnes and June had 336,219 tonnes.
In 2018, the total number of trains from Mombasa to Nairobi for the whole year was 1,686 carrying 2,918,973 metric tonnes of cargo.
‘This year we are performing very well. In the remaining six months, we will have surpassed last year’s performance by far,” he said.
He said as of Monday, the port of Mombasa and the Nairobi ICD were not experiencing any congestion.
“The yard population at the ICDN stood at 4,321 containers of imports,” he said.
(edited by O. Owino)
