DAR ES SALAAM, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan and her Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday officially opened the 42.4-km Arusha bypass, said a statement issued by the East African Community (EAC), a regional intergovernmental organization.
The Arusha bypass is part of the regional Arusha-Holili/Taveta-Voi road that links northern Tanzania to the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. It is the first phase of a project that was constructed to decongest traffic in Arusha, where the EAC headquarters is located, and Moshi towns in Tanzania, in addition to promoting intra-regional trade.
President Kenyatta, who is also the EAC chairperson, said at the launch ceremony held in northern Tanzania that infrastructure development was only second to peace and security as a driver of development.
President Hassan said the multinational road would, among other things, boost the tourism industry even as it promotes trade. She said Tanzania was investing heavily in infrastructure including water transport on Lake Victoria by building ships and rehabilitating ports on the lake to facilitate the movement of people and goods in the region. She urged people living near the key infrastructure projects to make use of the emerging opportunities to uplift themselves and spur economic growth.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) director general for East Africa Nnenna Lily Nwabufo said the AfDB had spent 217 million U.S. dollars on the Arusha-Holili/Taveta-Voi road with 112 million U.S. dollars allocated to Tanzania and 105 million U.S. dollars allocated to Kenya, adding that the two governments also made contributions to the project.
EAC member states are Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
