WALKING THE TALK: BUILDING A PROSPEROUS TANZANIA. Arusha Bypass enhances transport efficiency

COMMUTERS plying between Arusha and Serengeti as well as other parts in the northern zone are happy that transit times are surprisingly short after completion of the Arusha Bypass Road.

The 42.4 km bypass, launched by Heads of State of East African Community (EAC) last July, has significantly reduced transit times, facilitated cross-border trade and enhanced access for tourists to the many attractions in this region.

Speaking separately to this paper, the commuters who also include tour operators and long-distance truck drivers said the bypass has cut short time spent to reach their destinations.

Mr Engelbert Aloyce, a proprietor of a Karibu Karatu Tanzania, a Safari outfit based in Arusha told the ‘Daily News’ that he no longer needed to get to the city centre from the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA), where he picks his clients.

The tour operator, who is also the chairperson of Northern Tanzania Safari Guides Society, confides that he faced a hard time explaining to his clients why it took so long to get to the Tarangire National Park and other destinations before the road was constructed.

“Upon landing at the airport, some of the clients get super excited to get to see the destinations, now you can imagine driving all the way to the Central Business District when someone has Serengeti on their mind,” he said.

According to the tour operator, the road has saved them a great deal of time that would have otherwise got wasted when accessing the CBD.

“If anything, our clients also get an opportunity of marveling and appreciating the beauty of Arusha,” he added.

Sharing similar sentiments, David Shayo, a truck driver who ferries rice from Kahama town to Namanga, said he had to contend with traffic snarl-ups when accessing the city of Arusha as he heads to Kahama.

“The stretch has spared us the hustles and bustles of driving to the city, you just need to branch and take the bypass and off you go,” explained the elated long-distance driver.

The constriction and completion of the 42.4-kilometer stretch has also seen the demand and prices of property along the road go up.

Paul Bayo, a real estate agent at USA River area in the city’s outskirts told this paper that owning a house was now a privilege in the area, thanks to the presence of the road.

He admitted that some of the agents were inflating the price of plots and properties adjacent to the road.

“The value of homes and properties has gone up tremendously since the road got commissioned, it wasn’t the case back then,” he added.

Arusha Bypass Road that connects Tanzania and Kenya as part of a multinational Arusha-Holili/Tavera-Voi project, seeks to decongest traffic in the towns of Arusha and Moshi and to promote intra-regional trade.

It has been funded by the African Development Fund, the Bank’s concessional window at 217 million US dollars. For Tanzania ADF funding amounts to 112 million US dollars and Kenya is 105 million US dollars.

Speaking during the inauguration of the road President Samia Suluhu Hassan said the target was to fuel economic activities especially in the tourism sector for people in Arusha, and others in the northern regions.

“This road is going to open up economic opportunities, among others in the tourism sector, I urge people living near the project area to make better use of the opportunities coming across for the economic gains at individual, national and block levels,” she said.

The government is focused to take advantage of the county’s strategic geographical location to make Tanzania a competitive regional trade and logistic hub.

It has over the years taken deliberate measures and committed resources towards developing the road network and railway infrastructure.

Tanzania is a member of regional trading blocs of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC). It is the only SADC member in the EAC countries meaning other EAC partner states may access the SADC market through Tanzania.

The Third National Five-Year Development Plan (FYDP III), 2021/22-2025/26 mentions, geography and size as two of Tanzania’s comparative advantages to be used in fostering regional trade and help realize the dream of making Tanzania a leading regional trading hub.

According to the document, despite the huge potential available, existing infrastructural deficiencies inhibit Tanzania’s ability to leverage its comparative advantage by acting as a bridge economy that links the EAC and SADC regional markets, or realise its enormous potential as a logistics hub, linking the markets of the EAC and SADC regional trading blocs.

However, according to FYDP III, the challenges besetting the infrastructural sector in Tanzania extend beyond road and transport to unlock Tanzania’s infrastructural potential to attract all sorts of manufacturing and processing industries, the document suggested for a need to hasten implementation of various projects, which included complete construction of 2,500 km of paved roads, decongest major cities, construct 6,006 km of paved roads, begin construction of 14 bridges and complete construction of seven bridges.