The completion of the busy Nairobi’s outering road is now set for September 2017, Kenya National Highways Authority(KeNHA) has said.
According to KeNHA officials the project haven’t been implemented about 64 kilometers hence bringing late by two and a half months.
Though the Chairman of the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), Daniel Njora said that the delay was ‘normal’ and the implementation was delayed by relocating services such as water, sewer and power lines was a major setback.
“We had initially planned to relocate them in few months but it took as time and we are currently 90% complete on the same and we will implement the project smoothly,” he added.
He said that currently the project is moving swiftly and its being implemented at the rate of 4% per month and they believe that it’s a bit faster compared to when it was started.
According to the chairman, the road has already used a whooping Sh7.3 billion and is expected to have cost a total of Sh8.2 billion upon completion.
“It currently takes two to three hours to get to the southern bypass from Thika road but once the road is complete, it will only take 10 minutes,” Njora added.
Njora said that issue of land compensation was a big obstacle to the progress of the project but cited that the matter has already been addressed. He however said that more compensation would have to be done because the design of the road keeps changing.
On the same event the director of KURA, Silas Kinoti, said that they will ensure that the project is fully implemented and they will ensure that the completion of the road from the General Service Unit to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to be completed on time.
He added that once completed the project will be of great importance and will be a great booster to the economy and will reduce the current traffic jams that are being witnessed in the area.
“We are now looking into implementing the project as fast as possible so that we can see if we can beat the deadline that is in early next year” he added