The Ethiopian Road Authority said that the Ethiopian road network has grown significantly from 18 thousand kilometers to 113 thousand kilometers within the last 26 years with an allocated budget of more than 266 billion birr.
Lead Communicator with the Authority, Tewedaj Melkamu, told WMC that about 94, 985 kilometers of road is newly constructed during the stated period.
More than 73 percent of the road is constructed with the government, about 6 percent by road fund and 1.6 percent by the society and the donors have covered about 19 percent of the budget.
During the last 20 years, the road network in the country grows in average by 8.2 percent and this has itself fostered development in various ways to new areas that were previously inaccessible.
The rural road also has grown from 5 thousand to 31 thousand with the last 20 years and these roads have connected rural areas to more urban areas. For this growth the rural road agencies have played a great role, he added.
The time for dwellers in rural areas to reach urban centers has now diminished on average to 1.6 hours from the previous 10.2 hours in 1984.
In addition to the roads that have fostered domestic interconnection, huge roads that are connecting the country with neighbors and ports are constructed in the stated period.