The Government of Rwanda through the Ministry of Infrastructure has announced plans to rehabilitate and pave more roads across the country.
The country hopes to achieve its second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS) goals through upgrading and repairing additional 7,192Kms of roads. The main aim of the initiative is to reduce the cost of doing business in the country, scale down poverty rates through rural development.
The Minister for Infrastructure, James Musoni indicated that the roads that will benefit from the construction project to include the 208km Kagitumba-Kayonza-Rusumo road, 63Km Butaro-Kidaho road, 185Km Kivu belt and the 125Km Base-Gicumbi-Nyagatare road. USD 11m had been set aside in the fiscal year 2014/2015 for the roads construction project.
The Road Transport Development Agency has drafted a report on the identified class II roads that will be improved and is just waiting for cabinets’ approval. This is vital to ensure that the process of rehabilitation is guided and quality upheld.
The percentage of national roads that are paved is expected to rise to 95% up from the current 86% by 2017. 1011Km of the same roads is expected to be tarmacked by 2018.
The EDPRS is part of Rwanda’s vision 2020. The main objective is to ensure that the country gains middle-income status by 2020. This is by reducing the poverty rates by more than 30% and having the average GDP growth rate at 11.5%.
Late last year, Rwanda’s transportation sector received a boost of USD 74.7m loan to finance the upgrading of Rwanda’s transport system, a construction project expected to take place between 2015 and 2019.
