Sudan has only 2,250 miles of paved highway but plans to build new ones are under way.

THE sheer size of Sudan makes efficient and cost-effective transportation essential if the country is to reap the benefits of the peace dividend through economic growth and increased trade.
Unlike many of its neighbors, Sudan has access to foreign markets through its Red Sea ports, but decades of war and neglect have left its road and rail infrastructure in need of major rehabilitation and development.

The World Bank describes Sudan’s infrastructure needs as “daunting, with road and rail transport nonexistent in much of the region.” Huge projects are required to facilitate the transportation of products for export, boost commercial activity, and attract foreign investment.

The main highway links Khartoum to Port Sudan, a distance of approximately 630 miles. One major project is to construct a new highway, following a shorter route, thereby reducing transportation costs.

Increased oil revenues will enable Sudan to boost public investment in infrastructure projects, but foreign investment is also required to meet the enormous costs. One way in which foreign companies can get involved is through build-operate-transfer schemes.

In an important recent development, the National Highway Authority signed contracts with a Qatari company to fund construction of three routes in southern and western Sudan, at a cost of $600 million. Chinese and Malaysian oil companies are already involved in the construction of roads and bridges in support of their involvement in the oil sector.

KUOL MANYANG AJOK Minister of Transport, Roads and Bridges

Kuol Manyang Ajok, Minister of Transport, Roads and Bridges, says the priorities are to build roads, rehabilitate and extend the railway system, and build up river transport. “The transportation potential in Sudan is huge. In the fields of air transport, land transport, and railway transportation, there is much to do.”

Most of Sudan’s roads are narrow and poorly maintained, indeed many are little more than dirt tracks. Paved roads are urgently needed, in both the north and the south. The total paved highway is only around 2,250 miles, while the south has no paved roads.

Under the aegis of the World Bank, a multi-donor trust fund for southern Sudan will provide a $50 million grant combined with $100 million from the national government for a Sudan Emergency Transport and Infrastructure Development Project. The objective is to rehabilitate and develop critical road and transport infrastructure, and build capacity for construction and maintenance. 

President Al Bashir has declared his commitment to developing infrastructure projects in southern Sudan as a means of uniting the country. He has pledged that the government will connect the southern administrative center of Juba to Khartoum with an asphalt road, and that a road network will link the southern towns with each other, as well as with neighboring Kenya and Uganda. He has also said that the railway line, which stops at Wau, will be extended to reach Juba, and then on to Kenya.

“The absence of roads is what divides north and south,” says Mr. Ajok. “The political will exists to connect them.” One of the biggest challenges is to create a cost effective way of moving industrial and agricultural products for export from south Sudan to Port Sudan, almost 2,000 miles away on the Red Sea coast.

According to Mr. Ajok, “The most viable, and the cheapest, way would be to develop the railway line to south Sudan and then develop river transport, which is very cheap, to Khartoum. From Khartoum to Port Sudan can then be through roads and trains. This would definitely lower the costs.”

In the extreme south of the country cooperation with the neighboring countries of Kenya and Uganda would provide the answer. “The easiest way of exporting through a port from the southernmost part of Sudan is through Mombassa, in Kenya. The roads to our southern neighbors need to be upgraded and renovated.”

HAMID WAKIL General Manager of the National Highway Authority	IBRAHIM ALBUR General Manager of the River Transport Corporation

Hamid Wakil, General Manager of the National Highway Authority, believes that development of Sudan’s transport infrastructure will make a vital contribution to securing the peace. “Once we have roads linking the north and the south, people can travel back and forth, sharing the wealth, creating interaction and a homogenous new society.

“All we are discussing at the moment is the financing of these projects,” he adds. “Their execution is no longer in question.”

Major development of river transport is planned to take advantage of Sudan’s thousands of miles of navigable waterways.

From Wadi Halfa, near the border with Egypt, all the way to Juba, deep in the south, Sudan has a total length of more than 3,000 miles of navigable internal waterways.

The longest is the White Nile, while the Blue Nile, the Sobat River, Bahr El Ghazzal and Atbara rivers are navigable during the flood season, which runs from mid-July to mid-October.

River transport offers a cost effective and efficient means of moving large commodities and products, such as sorghum, wheat, sugar, livestock, and building materials.

The RTC has ambitious plans to rehabilitate and expand its fleet. Ibrahim Albur, General Manager of the River Transport Corporation (RTC) says, “We have signed a contract with a Dutch shipyard company to build 46 new barges, two floating docks, and to supply workshop equipment. The next stage will be to build passenger vessels.”

A dry port is being established at Kosti, in the White Nile State, to take goods direct from Port Sudan to reduce congestion there. Two new docks, one of 600 tons capacity and the other of 300 tons, are being built at Kosti, in the White Nile State, and there are plans for new harbors at Juba, Bor, and other big towns in the south.

“For the time being we are concentrating on the route to the south,” says Mr. Albur. “This is the first priority, but we also have plans to work north from Khartoum, even as far as Wadi Halfa.”

Waterways also offer potential for tourism, with Nile excursions, short trips, and floating hotels.