On 5 October 2016, the 750 km line linking Addis Ababa and Djibouti was inaugurated. The USD 3.4 billion project was mostly financed by China and it was constructed by the China Railway Group and the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation.
“In Ethiopia currently if you want to bring your container from Hong Kong to Djibouti it will take you maybe two, three weeks. But it will take you more than that to take it from Djibouti to Addis Ababa. It will now take us one day or more,” Getachew Betru, chief executive of Ethiopia Railways said.
The new railway line is expected to cut the journey time to under 10 hours between Addis Ababa and Djibouti. The new route will reduce travel time from Sebeta to the port of Djibouti by more than 50% and will form an important part of the East to West Africa Railway Network. The line will support both freight and passenger traffic.
Ethiopia is seeking to have 5,000 km of new lines working across the country by 2020.
“It is a part of trans-African railway network so it will give an opportunity for connecting Ethiopia with another neighbouring countries and it will minimize the cost of the transport and transport time and it is free from pollution, it uses renewable energy and so on,“said Ethiopian Railways Corporation communications manager, Dereje Tefera.
Photo: EBC
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