Ethiopia and Djibouti have signed an agreement to establish a joint company which will provide transport service at the newly built Ethio-Djibouti Railway.
Transport Minister Ahmed Shide and his Djiboutian counterpart Mohammed Abdulkadir Musa signed the agreement following a year and plus negotiation.
According to Fana Broadcasting Corporate, the agreement would help the transport service efficient and competent in tariff.
Headquartered in Addis Ababa, the Company would be responsible in providing passengers’ freight and route maintenance services.
The infrastructure would remain under the possession of the two countries. But, once the company started operation, they would be transferred to it under a concession agreement.
The two sides also agreed in principle on the tariff of the line. However, it might be decided by the Ethio-Djibouti Joint Railway Commission to be led by transport ministers of the two countries.
The two countries also agreed to establish a one stop border post.
The 758-kms railway fully works with electric power and the first longest railway line in Africa. It connects Ethiopia and Djibouti in particular and East African countries in general. The line supports the country’s carbon free economic development.
The railway was inaugurated by Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn and Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh October 5, 2016.
© Alleastafrica and The Ethiopian Herld
