ADDIS ABABA, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia revealed on Monday its plan to meet the country's road network ambition of 200,000 km within the coming two years.
The Ethiopian Roads Authority said in its latest report that the East African country is presently working to realize its road network infrastructure ambition of 200,000 km at the end of second five-year Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP-II), due effective from 2015 to 2020.
Ethiopia, which was able to reach 100,000 km of road network within the first Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP-I), is now working to double that figure by the time GTP-II is completed, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, the country's road network coverage has currently reached 121,171, including gravel road, in which the plan to realize the target is said to be achievable.
The authority has recently disclosed that the country's main-road coverage has increased from less than 19,000 km to 113,000 km during the last 27 years.
Ethiopia's main-road coverage was less than 19,000 km in 1991, of which the share of rural areas was less than 6,000 km while urban areas with around 12,000 km. The figure has registered a six-fold increase over the past 27 years, according to the ministry.
The country's road access has now also reached 1.23 km per 1,000 Ethiopians, figures from Ethiopian Roads Authority indicated.
The authority further noted Ethiopia's current investments in the infrastructure construction sector, which includes railway construction across the country as well as connecting the capital Addis Ababa with the Djibouti port.
The 752 km transnational Ethiopia-Djibouti Standard Gauge Rail, East Africa's first electrified railway, and the Addis Ababa Light Rail, a 475-million-U.S.-dollar railway project, are the pioneer railway infrastructures in Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian government also considered the two Chinese-built transport projects as flagship infrastructure projects as Ethiopia works to remain as Africa's fastest-growing economy.