Transport in Ethiopia
Transportation infrastructure in Ethiopia has been neglected for decades, but is now a priority of the government of Ethiopia.[1] A large number of roads and railways are currently under construction, and will be completed between 2011 and 2014. Over a third of the funding for asphalt and gravel roads is being covered by the Ethiopian Government which is a considerable shift in recent years financial scheme. About 10 years back the International Development Agency, the European Union and Japan.[1] had supported the finance by allocating about 90% required.
Contents |
Railways[edit]
- 681 km (Ethiopian segment of the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway), all 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) narrow gauge (1902–2010)
- At present the railway is under joint control of Djibouti and Ethiopia, but negotiations are underway to privatize this transport utility.
- 2 November 2006 - Ineco Spt of Spain was named the preferred choice for supervision and administration of rehabilitation work on the 781 km Ethio-Djibouti Railway for €2.2 million. Consta - an Italian company - will undertake the actual reconstruction at a cost of €40 million (about R360m). Comazar of South Africa has been awarded the 25-year concession. Rails are to be upgraded from 20 kg/m to 40 kg/m, to carry substantially increased loads. A fleet of new locomotives and freight wagons will be brought in by the concessionaire.[2]
- In 2008 a concrete sleeper plant was constructed in Dire Dawa.
- In September 2009 Ethiopian Railways Corporation signed a deal with China Railway Engineering Corporation for it to build the new Addis Ababa light railway transit.[citation needed]
Highways[edit]
As the first part of a 10-year Road Sector Development Program, between 1997 and 2002 the Ethiopian government began a sustained effort to improve its infrastructure of roads. As a result, as of 2002 Ethiopia has a total (Federal and Regional) 33,297 km of roads, both paved and gravel. The share of Federally managed roads in good quality improved from 14% in 1995 to 31% in 2002 as a result of this program, and to 89% in 2009 [1] the road density increased from 21 km per 1000 km2 (in 1995) to 889 km; per 1000 km2 (in 2009) however, this is much greater than the average of 50 km per 1000 km2 for Africa.[3]
The Ethiopian government has begun second part of the Road Sector Development Program, which was completed in 2007. This will involve the upgrading or construction of over 7,500 km of roads, with the goal of improving the average road density for Ethiopia to 35 km per 1000 km2, and reduce the proportion of the country area that is more than 5 km from an all-weather road from 75% to 70%.[4]
As of 2006, Ethiopia only had one expressway—the Addis Ababa Ring Road. This is a four-lane limited-access divided highway, which forms a beltway around the capital. Some portions are still yet to be completed. The majority of its interchanges consist of roundabouts. Pedestrian bridges were constructed every kilometer, to reduce the risk of accidents. While not built to expressway standards, many roads in Addis Ababa and other cities can be considered dual carriageways and have up to four lanes in each direction with hardly any intersections.
But the Ethiopian Roads Authority and China Communications Construction Consultancy is going to build a new six-lane expressway between Addis Ababa and Adama. The expressway will be 80 km long, will shorten the Addis to Adama distance by 20 km. To build this expressway will cost Ethiopia US$350 million. The expressway will begin at Ayat, Addis Ababa and end in north part of Adama. 150 km/h is the limited speed at the expressway, the journey will take about 30–40 minutes. The expressway will be completed in 2014.[5][6][unreliable source?]
Ethiopia has spent over 600 billion birr (USD $50 billion, €30 billion) in infrastructure since 1990, according to the Ethiopian government.
- total (Regional and Federal): 101,359 km [1] (2009)
- asphalt: 90,336 km [1] (2009) (89% of the roads in Ethiopia is asphalt)
- gravel: 11,023 km [1] (2009) (11% of the roads in Ethiopia is gravel)
- maintained by Regional government: 86,580 km (2009)
Major roads include:
No 1: north from Addis Ababa 891 km via Dessie to Adigrat, from Dessie to Weldiya. Designated part of the Ndjamena-Djibouti Trans-African Highway 6 (TAH 6)
No 2: east from Dessie 482 km to Aseb. Designated part of the Ndjamena-Djibouti TAH 6
No 3: north from Addis Ababa across the Blue Nile at Dejen and again at Bahir Dar east around Lake Tana 979 km via Gondar and Aksum to Adwa. Designated part of the Cairo-Cape Town Trans-African Highway 4 (TAH 4) from Addis Ababa to Gondar, and part of TAH 6 from Wereta to Gondar
No 4: east from Addis Ababa 542 km via Dire Dawa to Jijiga
No 5: west from Addis Ababa 322 km to Nekemte
No 6: south from Addis Ababa 797 km via Shashamene to Moyale. Designated part of TAH 4;
No 7: south-west from Addis Ababa 336 km via Waliso (Ghion) and Jimma to Bonga
No 8: south from Nazret 193 km via Asella and Dodola to Mogadishu
No 18: north from Awash on No 4 305 km to Mille on No 2
No 30: south-east from Jijiga 696 km across the Ogaden to the Shabelle valley
No 43: south-west from Nekemte 226 km to Metu
No 44: south-east from Shashamene 308 km to Dolo Odo (Doolow)[7]
- Wereta-Woldia: Designated part of the Ndjamena-Djibouti Highway (TAH 6)
Ports and harbours[edit]
Ethiopia is landlocked and was by agreement with Eritrea using the ports of Asseb and Massawa; since the Eritrean-Ethiopian War, Ethiopia has used the port of Djibouti for nearly all of its imports. Only one river, the Baro is used for transport.
Merchant marine[edit]
Total: 12 ships (with a volume of 1,000 gross register tons (GRT) or over) totaling 84,915 GRT/112,634 metric tons deadweight (DWT) (1999 est.); 9 ships (with a volume of 1,000 GRT or over) 81,933 GRT/101,287 DWT (2003 est.)
ships by type: cargo ship 7; container ship 1; petroleum tanker 1; roll-on/roll-off ship 3 (1999 est.), 1 (2003 est.)
Airports[edit]
There were an estimated 84 airports in 2005, only 14 of which had paved runways as of 2005. The Addis Ababa Airport handles international jet transportation. Before the Ethiopian civil war, the national carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, flew to numerous African, Asian, and European cities, and had sole rights on domestic air traffic. In 2003, about 1.147 million passengers were carried on domestic and international flights.
- Paved runways
total: 14
over 3,047 m: 3
2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2003 est.)
- Unpaved runways
total: 68
over 3,047 m: 3
2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
1,524 to 2,437 m: 13
914 to 1,523 m: 27
under 914 m: 23 (2003 est.)
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f Malone, Barry (28 Oct 2009). "Ethiopia earmarks almost $1 billion for roads". reuters.com.
- ^ RailwaysAfrica
- ^ "Ethiopia - Second Road Sector Development Program Project", p.3 (World Bank Project Appraisal Document, 19 May 2003)
- ^ World Bank, "Second Road Sector", p.11
- ^ Zenebe, Wudineh (27 June 2009). "Ministry to Sign for 350m dollar Loan from Bank of China for New Road". Addis Fortune. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ "Ethiopia - China to build Addis-Nazret Expressway". nazret.com. 11 September 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ Africa North East, Michelin 2007, Africa North East GeoCenter 1999, Maplandia
Further reading[edit]
- "Chapter 8: Transport and Communications" in Richard Pankhurst, Economic History of Ethiopia (1800–1935) (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University Press, 1968).
External links[edit]
- iEthio.com Addis Ababa Ethiopia Airport Shuttle
- Ethiopian Shipping Lines, S.C. The Ethiopian Merchant Marine Corporation
- Ethiopian Shipping Lines, S.C. The Ethiopian Merchant Marine Corporation
- Ethiopian Road Authority
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the CIA World Factbook.
