A cable-stayed bridge, described as East
Africa's longest, has opened in Tanzania's main city, Dar es Salaam, to ease
over-crowding on ferries.
The 680m (2,230 ft) bridge links the
city centre with southern neighbourhoods across the Indian Ocean.
Tanzania's leader John Magufuli hailed
it as a "liberation" for residents in the city of more than four
million.
The Chinese firm which
built the $140m (£98m) structure says it
is East Africa's longest cable-stayed bridge.
It is also the first toll road in
Tanzania. The prices have yet to be set - vehicles and motorcycles will have to
pay, pedestrians and bicycle will have free passage.
Correspondents say until now commuters'
only option to cross over the creek to the Kigamboni suburbs was in badly
maintained ferries. - and they are often held up for hours because of
breakdowns.
Motorists also take their cars on to the
ferries, and some have fallen into the sea as the vessels leave as they are not
always properly loaded.
The bridge links to an area earmarked in
2010 for an ambitious plan to build a satellite city, known as the Kigamboni
New City development.
The government also hopes that it will
boost tourism, making it easier for people to go to beaches on the other side
of the city.
At a ceremony to open the bridge, Mr
Magufuli described the seven-lane cable-stayed bridge as the only one of its
kind in central and East Africa.
"It has never been built before.
Even if you go to Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo [and] Kenya, there is no
bridge like this," he added.
He said it should be named Nyerere Bridge after Tanzania's first
President Julius Nyerere, saying the idea was first mooted by him.
Mr Nyerere led Tanzania, or what was
then known as Tanganyika, to independence from the UK in 1960.
0 Comment to "Tanzania bridge 'liberates commuters' in Dar es Salaam"
Post a Comment