Kenya Railways is to dedicate two trains daily to ferry empty
containers from its Nairobi Inland Container Depot (ICD) to the port of
Mombasa to reduce the backlog “and eventually clear it,” the ports
authority has said.
Responding to complaints over
delays, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) said the railway operator has
scheduled one out of the five daily locomotives for the job.
Last weekend, it said, four out of the five trains were set aside for the task.
“Moving
forward, the authority will be holding weekly consultative sessions
with its customers to track the efficiencies of the new measures,” head
of corporate affairs Bernard Osero said yesterday in a statement.
An
average of 540 containers of cargo are ferried to Nairobi ICD from
Mombasa through the SGR following an increase of freight trains from one
to five daily.
On Tuesday, the Shippers Council of
Eastern Africa (SCEA) had said that Kenya Railways and KPA should be
held responsible for the delays being experienced in returning the
containers.
The council said shippers have incurred
millions of shillings in demurrage charges as a result of delays, adding
that the matter should be resolved to cushion importers from further
losses.
Friday the ports authority said: “We wish to
assure all our esteemed customers that we are working round the clock on
all system challenges to ensure seamless clearance of cargo. We urge
cargo owners to take advantage of the free storage period to clear their
cargo as soon as it lands at the ICD Nairobi,” Mr Osero said Friday.
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