“SGR contractor bids to win hearts with projects along rail line”

 The company contracted to build the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is to hand over the project to the Government next year. But China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) is not just settling for handing over a railway track and its supporting infrastructure. The Chinese firm also wants to leave Kenya with socio-economic projects that have life-changing effects for host communities…executed under CRBC’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. “We see ourselves as not just here in Kenya to build a railway track between Mombasa and Nairobi. We see ourselves as a force for good; a transformative agent among the people in the areas we operate,” said Steven Zhao, the manager of external relations and co-operation at CRBC. “We measure success by our ability to positively impact the lives of Kenyans…

 The biggest beneficiaries of some of the projects CRBC has undertaken are in the eight SGR corridor counties of Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale, Taita Taveta, Makueni, Machakos, Kajiado and Nairobi. CRBC’s inventory of CSR projects along the corridor is broad, but one of the areas in which the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for SGR has been particularly active in is the construction of boreholes, which it shares with host communities. It has also been involved in the construction of roads, something that will become useful once SGR is operational by improving inter-nodal transport between the railway line and existing road infrastructure, especially in rural counties.