Ethiopia is soon to begin cross border public passenger transport with Sudan. This follows a bilateral agreement made between the two countries a year ago.
To realise this, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) had been signed between the two countries to launch a commercial road passenger transport to be operated to and from the cities of the two countries back in 2013. During the agreement, MoU on areas of railway, trade, harmonisation and mutual assistance in customs operation had also been signed.
A discussion that will include a delegation of officials, stakeholders engaged in transportation sector and private investors of both countries will be held, Kassahun Hailemariam, director general of the Federal Transport Authority (FTA), told Fortune.
“The next step will be agreeing on the terms of implementing the operation; issues like destination and origin of each vehicle that will travel from Ethiopia to Sudan and vice versa will be decided after we had discussed with our counterpart in Sudan,” added Kassahun.
On Ethiopia’s part, three alternative locations have been chosen as origin and destination areas, namely, Addis Abeba, Bahir Dar and Gonder. Subsequently, one of the aforementioned locations will be selected on the basis of the demand from local private investors, the interest of the Sudanese and the number of passengers expected from the above locations. The price will be also set after a discussion between the two counterparts.
A technical committee has already dealt with other issues over the past year. For instance, where passengers have to stop for meals, the weight of
baggage allowed per passenger and the type of vehicles eligible for this sort of travel. As far as the types of vehicles are concerned, buses at a minimum level are expected to have an air conditioning (AC) system.
“This area will be left to local public transport providers and if any public transport associations manage to provide us with the kind of vehicles we need, the door is open for all,” noted Kassahun.
There is no way that few associations will monopolize the service. Selam and Sky buses, operated by different share companies, have their own air-conditioning system. These buses are considered as a high quality means of transportation, in comparative terms.
Moreover, “since we are going to deal with cross border transportation, issue like visa and emigration will be arranged according to the law; there will be no change on the matter,” said Kassahun.
Different stakeholders from both countries are scheduled to meet on February 25, 2015, and facilitate the commencement of the service; this meeting will focus on clearing the paths that will lead to launching the service, said Abelneh Agidew, communications director at the FTA.
“We are hoping that the transportation service will begin in the current fiscal year,” Kassahun told Fortune.
As far as trade and economic relation is concerned, the presence of Sudanese owned projects has reached 289 projects at different levels with 13.7 billion Br. Sudanese are the first foreign companies from Africa in terms of both the number of projects and volume of investment.
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