The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a loan of around £104 million to implement the second phase of the Road Infrastructure Modernisation Programme (PMIR II) in Tunisia.
The PMIR II programme intends to promote an efficient and sustainable transport system capable of developing intra and inter-regional trade.
Development Diaries understands that the PMIR II project also aims to create 1,800 new jobs and provide 700,000 users with access to the road network by 2026.
The objective of the programme is to rehabilitate and strengthen a stretch of over 230 kilometers (km) of classified roads in the governorates of Gafsa, Kairouan, Kasserine, Sidi Bouzid and Siliana.
According to the World Bank, 80 percent of goods are moved by road in the Maghreb nation.
Data from the Logistics Capacity Assessments (LCAs) also shows that only 1,460 km out of the 12,600 km rural roads for agricultural purposes in the north African country has been paved.
It is understood that more than 13 percent of Tunisia’s population is reliant on all types of agricultural activities for employment.
‘By 2026, this new operation will help to better integrate the territories by improving access to the road network for 700,000 users’, AfDB Managing Director for North Africa, Mohamed El Azizi, said in a statement.
‘On average, it will reduce the journey time on the RN2 by more than half. Almost 1,800 new jobs will be created.
‘This is a new milestone in a successful cooperation which, over the last decade, has made it possible to modernize more than 70 [percent] of the Tunisian classified road network’.
Source: AfDB
Photo source: World Bank
