A new railway project to connect Addis Ababa with Djibouti was unveiled on Wednesday. The railway is part of Ethiopia’s program to build infrastructure.

The first phase of the railway project constitutes of a 1.2 billion dollar investment covering 670 Kilometres according to Getachew Bertu General Manager of the Ethiopian Railway Corporation. The Corporation is confident that the project will be completed in the three years set out he said.

A significant amount of the money required to construct the railway will be a loan from China with the Ethiopian government covering the difference.

The project will be overseen by Russian experts according to Getachew.

The actual construction will be done by China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC).

It is to be remembered that Overseas Infrastructure Alliance (OIA), an Indian contractor, was awarded a 78 million dollar project to design and survey the Mekelle-Djibouti railway line by the Ethiopian government last May.

The plan includes the construction of 34km of light railway lines and 2,395km of national railway lines in two development routes.

The Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway is part of the government's plan to lay down 5,000km of railway lines along seven economically important routes. And sources say that the government is considering another railway to Kenya.

The Ethiopian Railway Corp (ERC) had awarded contracts for the design, survey, and supervision of four railway tracks to 18 contractors in September last year.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency