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The Uganda Railway Corporation (URC) has received four new modern locomotives to boost service delivery. The development comes at a time when the demand for these locomotives continues to grow.
The four 3000 horsepower-engines were purchased from South African manufacturer, Grindrond Rail at approximately shs48b. The newly purchased locomotives bring the total number to 24.
Uganda Railway Corporation said the locomotives have a capacity to haul up to 1,500 tonnes each. This means they can each haul the equivalent of 75 trucks off the roads.
The managing director of URC Stanley Ssendegeya, said the last time the corporation received new locomotives happened in 1982. And most of these have since broken down.
‘’This is a very big breakthrough for the corporation because then we can improve efficiency, and change lives of many Ugandans,’’ he said during the unveiling event on Friday.
Furthermore, he said the corporation plans to rehabilitate and overhaul some of the locomotives to grow their functional fleet.
He said this will be their first step towards transforming operations in the coming three years.
He also said with the new locomotives, URC will increase its haulage capacity to at least one million metric tonnes of cargo annually. This will be up from the current 60,000 metric tonnes.
The new locomotives will also facilitate freight services along the Kampala-Naivasha line. This will take place as the rehabilitation of the network is pushed.
The railway corporation has also embarked on the rehabilitation of the 260km Kampala-Malaba line.
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