The Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) said Saturday a Chinese firm has signed a contract for the 107 km Gashena-Woldiya road upgrading project at the cost of over 370.7 million birr (42.7 million U.S. dollars).

The northern road is expected to be completed in 42 months and the fund for the construction work has been allocated by the World Bank, said Samson Wondimu, ERA's public relations officer.

The construction work will start very soon and the gravel road will be changed into asphalt concrete as per the accord, he told journalists.

Samson said the construction of the road will be carried out by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) while International Consultants and Technocrats (ICT) of India will supervise the construction.

The total width of the road in rural areas is 10 meters, out of which the carriage way occupies seven meters. It will have a 1. 5 meter shoulder on the right and left side of the road. In urban areas the total width of the road reaches up to 18 meters, of which 12 meters goes to the carriage way and three meters on both sides to a walk way. 

In Ethiopia, only about l2 percent of the 80-million population have access to roads. Therefore, completion of an adequate nationwide highway system continued to be one of Ethiopia 's major development challenges.

Since the downfall of the Derg regime in 1991, many Chinese firms, including CRBC, have entered Ethiopia and played a major role in the construction of roads in the Horn of Africa country.

Despite these efforts, Ethiopia's road network remained primitive and quite limited.

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