Kenya expands Inland Container Depot (ICD) by 7.5 acres.

Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Emakasi expansion in line with the higher cargo capacity of the standard guage railway.

Kenya Port Authority (KPA) approved 7.5 acres of land for the expansion of the Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Emakasi. This was done in preparation for the higher cargo capacity under the standard guage railway.

KPA general manager for engineering services Joseph Atonga told the Business Daily that the idea is to increase the capacity on the Sh22 billion facility lunched by President Uhuru Kenyatta last December.

The ICD can handle a capacity of 180,000 20-foot Total Equivalent Units (TEUs) per annum, which will be expanded to 450,000 TEUs.

The facility has, however, been starved of cargo since it was launched. The problems raised by cargo owners such as price had been addressed.

The land is expected to be developed before December. ICD will charge cargo owners according to this duration.

Kenya Railways Corporation is set to run freight trains with 54 double-stack wagons each, carrying 216 20-foot containers each with a total load of 4,000 tonnes on each train.

The State corporation has been given a target of six million tonnes at the Nairobi ICD.

The 25-tonne wagons with capacity of 70 tonnes and will move at a speed of 80km/h.

This will cut the rail transport service by half when compared to the time metre gauge trains took to transport goods between the two cities.