Ethiopia and Djibouti Establish Joint Company to Manage Railways

The 750-km railway line linking Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa and Red Sea state of Djibouti was formally inaugurated in October this year. The Chinese built project was aimed at creating new manufacturing industries, improving transport and further opening up landlocked Ethiopia.

Ethiopia’s Minister of Transport, Ahmed Shide and his Djiboutian counterpart, Mohammed Abdulkadir Musa, signed the agreement after a negotiation that took more than a year, the state affiliated FANA broadcasting corporate reported.

The agreement will help ease transportation as was envisaged at the launch of the railway line linking both countries. The company will be headquartered in Addis Ababa, and will have the responsibility to provide passengers, freight and maintenance services for the route, according to the agreement.

The new railway line it was estimated will slash the journey time between the two countries to under 10 hours. Ethiopia is seeking to have 5,000 km of new lines working across the country by 2020.

The electrified and environmentally friendly project will also replace a diesel-powered Addis Ababa-Djibouti line.

[quote font_size=”16″ arrow=”yes”]“It is a part of trans-African railway network so it will give an opportunity for connecting Ethiopia with another neighbouring countries and it will minimize the cost of the transport and transport time and it is free from pollution, it uses renewable energy and so on,” [/quote]Ethiopian Railways Corporation (ERC) communications manager, Dereje Tefera said in October.