Good news for the railway in the east
The legendary Djibouti-Ethiopian railway, which began construction in 1898 and opened in 1917 by the Negus Menelik, is to be repaired thanks to EU funding of €50 million. The railway runs from the great port of Djibouti to Addis Ababa. The project is a priority for Ethiopia. The railway is, together with a road link, the country’s only transport corridor, as access to the port of Massawa on the Red Sea has been blocked since the conflict with Eritrea (1998–2000).
Station and tracks of the CFE (Ethiopian Railways).
© Vecturis
At a ceremony to mark the start of the work on 9 July in Metahara, the Transport Minister, Juneidi Sado, said that without the repair of the railway the country’s transport network would have been overloaded within the next three to four years. The repair work is badly needed, as the dreadful state of the railway has led freight companies to switch to the motorway despite chronic congestion and high number of accidents.
The repair work, which is being carried out by the Italian group Consta, should be complete by mid-2009. It involves the repair of the most badly damaged sections of track. A total of 114 kilometres of track and nine metal bridges will be replaced. Additionally, 40 other bridges will be strengthened and the section of track which crosses Beseka Lake where the black, obsidian waters are overshadowed by the Fantale volcano, will be realigned. When work is complete, day-to-day operation of the railway will be put out to tender and there will be the introduction of new rolling stock and possible additional funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The modernisation of the railway is expected to have quite an impact. It will make the transportation of fuel safer and less expensive as well as make the coffee and textile sectors more competitive and boost the exportation of livestock (cattle, sheep and goats) to the Gulf countries. The railway also provides an opportunity for the regions through which it passes to make their economies thrive rather than just survive. Finally, the modernisation of the railway is vital for Djibouti, where the Dubai Port Authority has invested heavily in the construction of the deep-water port of Doraleh. The port provides the country with its main source of income. Finally, it is hoped that the completion of the work will consign the bandits – who sometimes disrupt journeys in the Djibouti border region – to the annals of history.
