SINOHYDRO Seals 1.7b Br Contract for 79km Road in the South

The Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) awarded SINOHYDRO Corporation Limited a 1.66 billion Br contract on Tuesday, October 28, 2014, to design and construct 79.1Km asphalt concrete road in the Southern regional close to the Omo Kuraz Sugar Factory.

The Chinese company has already brought construction workers from China for this project, ahead of the agreement that was signed between Zaid Woldegebrial, director general of the ERA, and Tina Hongjun, East African management Chief representative of SINOHYDRO. It is now preparing to hire Ethiopian workers, the representative said.

The new road, to be completed in two years, will extend from Mender, a town 42Kms from Jinka, to Hana town, 15kms from Omo Kuraz Sugar Factory, one of the seven sugar factories under construction. This road will connect the sugar factory with Hana town and the Sawela-Maji road. This road will be constructed as an extension of the 41.7km asphalt concrete road, whose construction was awarded to another Chinese contractor, the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC); this road extends from Omo to the Omo Kuraz Sugar Factory No. 6 Junction, linking the sugar factory to the Hanna-Jinka and Sawela-Maji roads.

The new 79km road will reduce the existing Sodo- Arbaminch-Jinka- Hana-Omo route to the sugar factory by 180Km and will facilitate the transport of raw materials and sugar to and from the factory to the market, according to a statement from the ERA.

The ERA is currently selecting a consulting firm for this project.

SINOHYDRO, which has been in Ethiopia for the last 10 years, has so far constructed 10 roads including Assosa- Kurmuk, Gondor-Debark and Asella-Dodola road projects. It has also undertaken the Tekeze and Fincha-Amerti Neshe hydropower projects, jointly with Sur Construction Plc and Gezhouga Group Company Limited (CGGC) – these three are now working on Genale Dawa III and Geba Dam hydropower projects.

The Hana-Mender road will have 21m carriageway in weredas and zones, 12m in kebeles and 10m in plain lands and eight metres in rural sections. The work also includes minor and major drainage structures, bridges and junctions. The ERA is planning to announce a tender for the 51Km roads project which extends from Jinka to Mender, according to Dereje Hailu, communication officer at the Authority.

On the final year of the Fourth Road Sector Development Program (RSDP IV), for which implementation costs are estimated to reach 125.3 billion Br, the government allocated 30 billion Br for the current fiscal year for the projects including Mender-Hana road. The ERA has rehabilitated, upgraded, constructed and maintained 61,114kms of roads as of June 2014, at a cost of 113 billion Br.

ERA has managed to construct 39,094kms which is 59pc of the plan, as of the end of June 2014. The total road coverage has reached to 68pc, total road length of 100,000kms as of July 2014. The Authority plans to push the total road network of the country to 136,044kms by the end of the current fiscal year.

“As the sugar factory is going to start production soon, the road should be completed on time,” Zaid said during the signing ceremony held at the premises of the Authority near Mexico square on Ras Abebe Aregay Street.


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