Huawei will Build a Railway Operational Communications Network in Kenya

The new system is designed to provide a GSM-R dispatching communications network and a backbone optical transmission network, clock and synchronisation system, as well as a power and environment monitoring system.

Construction of the 472km Mombasa-Nairobi railway line began in October 2013. The railway line is claimed to be the starting point of East Africa’s railway network and has a designed freight capacity of 25 million tonnes.

With a total investment of $3.8bn, the Mombasa-Nairobi railway line adopts the Chinese Railway Level 1 standards. The project is under the Kenya Vision 2030 development agenda, connecting Kenya’s coastal area to East Africa’s inland.

Under the deal, Huawei will provide end-to-end highly reliable railway operational communications solutions to help Kenya address various challenges during the Mombasa-Nairobi railway operation.

It is reported that the entire project is scheduled to be completed by June next year.

The railway operational communications system implements mission-critical tasks such as train dispatching, data transmission and information exchange.

The deal will involve the deployment of Huawei’s power supply solution and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) products that are secure, reliable and economical.

The company noted its solution and products meets customer requirements on backup power and provides highly reliable power supplies for communications systems, data centres and security systems along the entire railway line.

On completion, the Mombasa-Nairobi railway line’s GSM-R network will have various communications tasks, including mission-critical train dispatch, emergency and section maintenance communications, and transmission of train control data along the entire line.

On the African continent, Huawei was also awarded other contracts, including a light rail project in Ethiopia, the Chingola-Livingstone railway project in Zambia, and the PRASA GSM-R project in South Africa.