Six new roads are in the works in the Southern Nation Nationalities & Peoples’ regional state, Somali regional state, Oromia regional state and Benishangul Gumuz regional state. The projects were awarded to three foreign contractors and three local private construction companies by the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA). All six projects are worth six billion Birr.
The award ceremony was held at the headquarters of the authority by presence the Director of ERA, Araya Girmay on January 26, 2017. The agreement has raised the authority’s investment to around 14 billion Br since the beginning of the current fiscal year.
The first project is a 58km road connecting the towns of Chida and Tercha, located 530km’s away from Addis Abeba in SNNP regional state. It is the most expensive of the newly signed projects, and will cost 20.1 million Br per kilometer. The road will stretch across mountainous landscapes, and will require 196 drainage systems and five bridges. This is still three times lower than the most expensive road in Ethiopia so far. Invest Story Project, based in Russia was selected to undertake the project at a total cost of 1.1 billion Br. It is scheduled to be completed within two years.
“This is our first project in Ethiopia,” said Dmitri Selise, director of Invest Story project. This project is scheduled to be completed within two years.
A week after it won the right to construct the Jimma Industrial Park, China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) signed an agreement with ERA to construct the 90km Cheretti-Hagere Mekor road project in Oromia Region. The road will cost 14.4 million Br per km. The project covers 90km and is expected to be completed in three years. Currently CCCC is constructing roads which are 161.23km and 28.1km in length in Amhara regional state and Addis Abeba respectively, as well as the Woldiya-Meqelle railway.
The Fiq Hamero road project was given to local contractor Macro General Contractor, at a cost of 10.1 million Br per kilometer. The road will connect the Eastern Arsi Zone with Bale and covers 81kms. The project involves the upgrading of gravel roads to asphalt. Macro is currently constructing the 100km Adaba-Angetu road project in Oromia.
Gemechu Beyene, another local contractor that worked on the 360 million Br Harar-Jigjiga road was awarded the contract for the Ginchi-Kachise road in Oromia regional state at a cost of 14.3 million Br. The 59km road is expected to be completed in the next three years.
Another local company, Yencomad Construction, will construct the 59km road extending from Melkasa to Metahara at a cost of 12.8 million Br per kilometre. The project is expected to be completed in the coming three years.
The contract for the Pawe junction road was awarded to China Railway No.3 Engineering Group. The project will cost 12.8 million Br per kilometer and will be completed within three years. The 69Km road will connect Pawe with the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and is expected to facilitate market productivity in the region.
In bid to increase road networks , ERA has signed 20 road contracts in the past six months. Currently Ethiopian road networks have reached 113,000km.