The railway line that links the two Africa countries, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso will be modernized in order to cut costs in freight transport and to reduce time travel for both freight and passenger transport. The 1 260 km railway line, which connects the Ivorian commercial capital Abidjan to Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou, is currently undergoing a five-year, USD 445 million programme of improvements as announced by French infrastructure Bolloré.
The 30-year concession to run the line is held by Sitarail, owned two-thirds by Bolloré and one-third by the Ivorian and Burkinabé governments.
The aim of the improvements is to drastically cut the journey time for both passengers and cargo (currently which takes between 36 and 48 hours), and to increase the freight capacity to 5 million t per year. Up to 60% of that figure will be exports of manganese from Pan African Minerals’ mine at Tambao in Burkina Faso, Sitarail president Michel Roussin explained.
The line, which is already the principal route for trade between Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, currently transports 910 000 t of merchandise and around 300 000 passengers.
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