MATUKIO : EAC MULLS OVER SUPER-HIGHWAY TO LINK TANZANIA'S AND KENYA'S COASTLINES

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.