Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) floated a tender for the construction of Ethiopia’s third expressway, which will be an extension of Addis – Adama Expressway and estimated to cost 12 billion Birr. The road project is part of the Authority’s plan to construct an expressway from Adama to Messo town through Awash, with a total length of 202.5 kilometers for an estimated cost of 20.2 billion Birr.

The tender was re-announced on June 1, 2017 and the Authority invited only Chinese construction companies for the construction of 120 kilometers of road. The first bid was floated back in July 2016, yet it was subsequently cancelled as the Authority believed the offers made by the companies were highly inflated, according to Samson Wondium, Communications Director at ERA.

The project is going to be financed by a loan the Ethiopian Government has secured from the Export Import Bank of China (EXIM Bank of China). The road will have 2 lots with equal length; the first stretching from Adama to Wolnchiti and the second from Wolinchiti to Awash.

“Since we secured the finance last year from China, we invited only Chinese companies, which have a vast experience in the area,” Samson explained.
When the project was completed, it would facilitate the logistics from Djibouti to Addis Ababa, Samson noted.

The bid is going to be opened in July 2017.

Source: Fotrune