This archive report was first published on 13 September 2019.
The development of a railway siding connecting the Athi River Export Processing Zone (EPZ) to the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) has hit a snag due to a land dispute. Private investors who were allocated land between the industrial park and the SGR station have cordoned off the area, making it difficult for the EPZ Authority to develop the railway siding.
Manufacturing firms based in the zone are now avoiding the Nairobi Inland Container Depot (ICD), citing additional costs of using the dry port. The construction of the railway siding was intended to ease logistics costs for firms operating in the EPZ, according to EPZA chairman Paul Gicheru.
“The current movement of containers from Athi River to Nairobi ICD for transhipment has led to long delays in clearance, further leading to higher logistical costs and losses to the investors,” Gicheru said in a statement on Thursday.
He blamed Machakos County’s planning department for approving the development of the boundary wall and cordoning off the railway without considering the role of a railway station within a key industrial park.
