Egypt and Tanzania are preparing to improve and upgrade the iconic Cape to Cairo highway, with the objective of establishing a land-based connection across the African continent. This ambitious project aims to create the longest road network that spans the entirety of Africa.
Cape to Cairo highway connects nine African countries, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt.
The Cape to Cairo highway starts at the southernmost tip of Africa and serves as a route for overland tourism, connecting various countries including South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and eventually reaching Egypt. Numerous tourist trucks travel this route, facilitating exploration and adventure across the African continent.
Road experts from Tanzania and Egypt stated that the Pan-African highway is anticipated to create a connection for tourism between Egypt and South Africa. This connection is expected to bring forth new economic prospects for tourism development in Africa.
The envisaged road modernization project is poised to be the longest road project in Africa, targeting to foster cross-continental transport among the African states between Cape Town in South Africa and Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt.
Egyptian and Tanzanian transport officials held a joint meeting in Dar es Salaam recently then agreed to fast-track the rehabilitation of the Cape to Cairo road section covering 1,600 kilometers in Tanzania between Tunduma on the Zambian border to Namanga on the Kenyan border.
Tanzanian Minister for Works, Innocent Bashungwa, has held private talks with the Egyptian minister for Transport Mr. Kamel El Wazir in Tanzania, where it was agreed to modernize the road for cargo and passenger vehicles to pass through 10,228 kilometers from South Africa to Egypt.
“We have agreed to repair the road network that connects Africa from Egypt to South Africa where in Tanzania, the road starts from Songwe Region from Zambia to Arusha on the border between Kenya and Tanzania,” minister Bashungwa said in a statement.
He said that rehabilitation and modernization of the road would be implemented this year.
From Zambian to Kenyan borders, the Great North Road passes through scenic and attractive areas in Tanzania, including the scenic and attractive areas in the Southern Highlands, rich wildlife parks of Mikumi, Ruaha, Ngorongoro, Serengeti and Mount Kilimanjaro then Amboseli National Park in Kenya.
The road is currently used by tourists traveling by trucks from Southern African states to North and West Africa. Sections of the road in Southern and Central Tanzania have been modernized with tarmac for permanent vehicle passage.
The Egyptian Ministry of Transport said through its report that the anticipated Cape Town to Cairo highway project would start this year targeting to increase trade and tourism between African countries.
About 1,155 kilometers of the road are in Egypt, the Egyptian Ministry of Transport said.
Road construction experts from the Ministry of Works and Egypt’s Ministry of Transport have started the ground work rehabilitation of the road which begins at Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea through Cairo to Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana then South Africa.
SOURCE: Egypt and Tanzania Set to Upgrade Cape to Cairo Highway BY: eTurboNews | eTN