The Rift Valley Railways, RVR, the concessionaire for Uganda Railways, plans to invest a total of US$29 million by June 2008 to upgrade the quality of the country's rail network and boost the efficiency of cargo transportation.

If the company follows through on its stated objective, it will have nearly met the minimum five-year capital investment set for it by the government of Uganda and Kenya - $30 million - in less than two years.

Roy Puffett, managing director of RVR said the company will initially concentrate on specialised training of personnel and repairing equipment so that it can support daily operations.

He said for the last 11 months the company has basically been setting the ground rules and organising systems and structures and fixing broken equipment.

The most pressing problems with Uganda and Kenya's railway network, he said, were dysfunctional wagons and locomotives. For instance out of the 1,500 wagons that Uganda has, only a few are usable. In Kenya, only 47 percent of its 4,000 wagons are in proper condition.

Inadequate wagons result in slow cargo delivery and affects businesses which incur losses in delays. Puffett said there would be no purchase of new wagons in the first five years of operations because the existing stock is sufficient it were put back in good condition. He said the company will continue repairing all the wagons.

Responding to the persistent complaints from Uganda manufacturers and importers about the cargo pile-ups at Mombasa port, Puffett said RVR was not responsible and placed the blame at the feet of the Kenya Ports Authority, KPA.

He said KPA's capacity for container clearing and loading had been long outstripped by demand and that as a result cargo destined for Kampala was now taking weeks at the port before it could be loaded for haulage to Kampala.