Sudanese highway back on track

22 February 2002

A total of 34 companies have applied to prequalify for the contract to build a 500-kilometre road linking the city of Atbara, north of Khartoum, with Port Sudan. The estimated $110 million project, which is fully financed by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, will reduce the distance by road from the capital to Port Sudan by about 400 kilometres. Bypassing an existing highway which connects Khartoum to the coast via Kassala, the new road will also improve connections between the Sudanese road and railway networks. Located at the confluence of the Atbara river and the Nile, the city of Atbara is the terminus of two major railway routes. The new road link will also pass through the railway junction of Hayya, northeast of Khartoum (MEED 1:2:02).

The project has attracted some of the largest contractors working in the region. Prequalified companies include Arab Contractors (Osman Ahmed Osman & Company)of Egypt, the Nile Corporation Construction Company, a subsidiary of Daewoo Corporationof South Korea, Athens-based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC), Saliniof Italy and Mohammed Abdulmohsin Kharafi & Sonsof Kuwait.

The Atbara-Port Sudan road has a history as troubled as that of the legendary Trans-African Highway, of which it is supposed to be the easternmost segment. Norconsultof Norway was the consultant on the project in the early 1990s, when construction was abandoned after a few weeks due to lack of funds. The World Bank had agreed to finance the road but then suspended all loans to Sudan.

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