New rail link proposed

Ethiopia and Sudan propose to build a railway link from Port Sudan, on the Red Sea in the east of the country, to Ethiopia’s southernmost town of Moyale, on the Kenyan border. Ethiopian Minister for Transport and Communications Dirir Mohammed said on Monday that the project would cost about US $1.5 billion, and cover a distance of about 2,200 km, news agencies reported. In a report published in the government press, Dirir said an agreement on the rail link had been reached at a joint ministerial meeting in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, in early March 2000.

According to Dirir, a study conducted by the Ethiopian Railway Development Initiative had offered two options.
One was to construct 2,160 km of railway, at a cost of US $1.422 billion dollars, from Port Sudan to Moyale, through Shewako and Bikar within Sudan, and through Mekele, Dalol, Mille, Awash, Nazareth, Assela and Neghele in Ethiopia to the Kenyan border. The second option, at a cost of US $1.5 billion dollars, would cover a distance of 2,240 km. It would run from Port Sudan to Moyale through Galabat in Sudan, into Ethiopia through the border town of Metema, and through the towns of Gondar, Woldiya and Mille. Dirir said the choice between the two options would be determined according to the results of further studies.