Government sets up new road maintenance agency

In a bid to revamp the nation's battered highways, the government of landlocked Central African Republic set up a new agency on Saturday to rehabilitate and maintain 24,000 km of roads. The new agency, know as the Fonds d'Entretien Routier, will repair and maintain the national network of trunk, regional and rural roads; 65 percent of which the director of public works for road maintenance, Auguste Nambea, said were in "bad condition". He said the agency would be funded from road and fuel taxes. Motorists would be charged 55 francs CFA (a fraction of a US cent) on every litre of petrol sold. The establishment of the agency is an effort by the cash-strapped government of Francois Bozize to open up remote parts of the country and, thereby, end the economic and social isolation of rural dwellers. Poor roads have hampered rural development for decades. Since independence in August 1960, the government has built just 650 km of all weather roads, which is less than 4 percent of the country's total road network. Many roads have not been resurfaced since independence. As a result, police and army troops are unable to reach the remotest parts of the country to halt the expanding incidents of banditry. In addition, poor roads have meant that farmers are unable to get their crops to markets. These factors have encouraged rural folk to move to towns or go to neighbouring countries.