By ADAM IHUCHA -- The
East African community is finalizing designs for a key multinational highway as
it seeks to link Kenya’s eastern with Tanzania’s northeastern coastlines.
An
ambitious road runs from Malindi - Mombasa –Lunga Lunga in the Kenyan side
to Tanga-Pangani-Saadani-Bagamoyo in the Tanzanian part.
Idea
behind the road is to stimulate a regional trade link between
the Port of Mombasa in Kenya and all
northeast Tanzania and beyond.
The EAC’s Principal Civil Engineer, Hosea Nyangweso says
a 460-km highway to cost $600 million, is a critical hub to unlock the potential
of tourism trade and maritime shipping in both coastlines.
“Designs for transnational road
runs from Kenya’s eastern coast to Tanzania’s northeastern seashore are in the
final touches to pave way for funds mobilization” Mr Nyangweso says.
According
to him, the African Development Bank (AfDB) had basically agreed to bankroll
the crucial highway and from early next year, would allocate some funds, for
the project.
If
all goes well, Nyangweso says, the construction phase, which takes three years period,
would kick off early 2016.
Detailed designs show that the
178km-long Tanga-Pangani-Bagamoyo road is to be realigned to avoid crossing in
the middle of Sadaani National Park as it was earlier envisioned.
Tanzania’s Deputy
Minister for Works, Greyson Lwenge, says the road will skip Saadani Park in a
bid to protect the ecosystem.
“This will be a solid
development model that gives maximum support to the economic growth of the
regional without endangering the million of animals in the world-renowned
Saadani national park” he noted.
Saadani National Park where
the beach meets the bush is the only wildlife sanctuary in East Africa with
ocean frontage and therefore the only place that can genuinely lay claim to
offering beautiful beaches and safari in a single location.
Mr. Lwenge says that the highway
is currently undergoing a feasibility study by Aureco Company from South Africa
in partnership with the EAC.
Importance
The road is expected
to boost regional integration, cross border trade, tourism, and socio-economic
development, as it will open up investment opportunities.
It
will also improve the essential road transport infrastructure between Kenya and
Tanzania coastlines, particularly between Mombasa and Bagamoyo.
More
crucially, it is anticipated to ease cargo movement from both Mombasa and Tanga
ports to the landlocked countries of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
Precisely,
the road is expected to stimulate tourism trade since it will improve
connectivity between the two must-experience-beaches of Mombasa and Tanga.
Chief
Executive Officer for Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO), Sirili
Akko welcomed the project, saying the road offer holidaymakers a hassle-free trip to the both coastlines.
“In
a long run, this coastline running from Mombasa-Tanga- Dar Es - Salaam, will
become a single tourism destination where tour operators would be promoting as
a East African beach” Mr Akko explained.
Tanga on the Tanzanian northern coast
close to the Kenyan border has a fascinating history as one of the oldest
settlements along the East African coast.
The word “Tanga” means “sail” in the
Kiswahili language, an indication that the protected Tanga bay has over many
centuries offered a safe haven for local fishers and the thriving Indian Ocean
trade along the East African coast.
Another translation of “Tanga” refers to the
Bondei word “farm”. In 1631, people from the area joined the Mazrui dynasty of
Mombasa in their fight against Portuguese rule and remained under their
influence thereafter.
Tanga and Pangani became important
trading centres for slaves and ivory when the Sultan of Muskat and Oman moved
to Zanzibar in 1832 and controlled a coastal strip of 10 miles inland of the
East African coast.
In the scramble for Africa over the
last decades of the 19th century, German commercial interests and later the
German government the inland, bought the coastal strip from the Sultan and
developed the colony as ‘German East Africa’.
With its protected port and fertile
hinterland, especially in the Usambara Mountains, Tanga became a centre of
German colonization and also an administrative centre up to 1890 when Dar es
Salaam was made the capital of the emerging colony.
Tanga region covers 27,348 km2 has an
estimated population of nearly two million inhabitants, with at least 300.000
living in Tanga City.
While most people in the hinterland are
small farmers and livestock keepers, the coastal rural inhabitants live off
fishing and small-scale farming.
Others are engaged in trades, boat
building, salt harvesting and charcoal making. Tanga has the second largest
port of Tanzania.
The region offers a wide range of
beautiful places to visit: the long Indian Ocean coastline with its sheltered
bays and lagoons, such as Moa, Manza, Kwale, Tanga and Mwambani bay.
Kigombe, Pangani and Ushongo have
marvellous beaches - all with fringing and offshore coral reefs and sandbanks.
Tanga region hosts several protected
areas: Saadani and Mkomazi National Parks, Amani Nature Reserve, Coelacanth
Marine Park and Maziwe Island Marine Reserve.
The region also has lush mangrove
forests, pristine semi-arid forests along the coast and on the islands.
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