Proposed city bypass closer to reality

Dar es Salaam. The construction of a bypass bridge along Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road in Dar es Salaam will finally become a reality when President John Magufuli and South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon witness the signing of the contract for the project today.

Mr Lee is in the country on a three-day working visit.

The project – which was announced during the days of Dr Magufuli as Works minister in 2014 – will be funded by the South Korean government by up to 80 per cent.

A bypass will involve renovation of parts of Toure and Kenyatta drives along Msasani Peninsula and building of a one-kilometre bridge over the Indian Ocean adjacent to Selander Bridge.

The bypass will start from Barack Obama Drive near Aga Khan Hospital. From that point, the road will also be renovated up to Ocean Road Cancer Institute.

A statement released by the Directorate of Presidential Communications yesterday that the contract signing event will be held at the State House. It will involve the Tanzania National Roads Agency (Tanroads) and the contractor who won the tender.

As Works minister in 2014, Dr Magufuli said then that the new bridge will have the capacity to handle up to 61,000 vehicles daily and make congestion a thing of the past.

Upon completion, it is expected that the bypass will be able to handle up to 120,000 vehicles daily. The project’s feasibility study was completed in 2014.

Meanwhile, Tanzania and South Korea yesterday signed an agreement on reciprocal exemption from visa requirements for holders of their country’s diplomatic and service passports.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Dr Augustine Mahiga, and the South Korean first vice minister of the ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Lim Sung-nam, represented their two countries at the signing ceremony.

Korea is one of Tanzania’s major donors, having provided over $600 million of assistance to Tanzania between 2006 and 2016, official statistics show.

The Korea Export-Import Bank has extended over $500 million to Tanzania through the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF).

Apart from the bypass in Dar es Salaam, which is popularly known as Selander Bridge, the Korea Export-Import Bank has also built the Malagarasi Bridge and also constructed vocational training centres, Dodoma clean water supply system and the Kilimanjaro-Arusha transmission line, among other projects.

Construction of data centres for the national ID system project, the Muhas Medical Centre project in Mlonganzila, and the Zanzibar irrigation infrastructure project were also undertaken through South Korean funding.