Detail design works for one Route I of the new railway is underway, Minister of Transport Kuma Deriba informed the parliament on March 22/2011. According to his 8-months performance report, the manpower needed for the next five years has been identified.

Detail study of design is being conducted by local and foreign contractors for the new rail route that stretches from Sebeta, near Addis Ababa, to Dewele, which is located near the border of Djibouti. It should be noted that this route is about 656 km long and one of the four routes to be constructed in the next five years – that is phase I of the project. (See the map and list of the routes, in this blog, – HERE and HERE)

The Minister also reported that 5,000 professionals with first and second degree in Engineering and another 25,000 with Technical and Vocational Training will be needed for the railway construction works of the next five years. Preparations to train the manpower within Ethiopia are underway in collaboration with Higher Education Institutions and the Ministry of Education, Deriba Kuma said.

It has been reported last November by the English weekly, Addis fortune, that ‘the design of all the four railway routes was awarded to 18 companies at the end of September 2010.’ Since Addis fortune is a reliable media outlets, the recent report of the Minister may be referring to further designing works. Moreover, it is this route, the new rail route to Djibouti, is the one that secured finance from China to date.

It is to be recalled that this the first blog to post the map design of the 8 rail routes to constructed in the phase I and II of the project.