It links Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, to the Red Sea port of Djibouti a stretch of more than 750km (466 miles). Travelling at 120km/h, the new service cuts the journey time down from three days by road to about 12 hours.
The
$3.4bn (£2.7bn) project was built with the help of funding from a Chinese bank
and will have Chinese staff. Getachew Betru, chief executive of Ethiopia Railways, says it will be
much cheaper and more reliable than travelling to Djibouti by road.
"In
Ethiopia currently if you want to bring your container from Hong Kong to
Djibouti it will take you maybe two, three weeks but now take us one day or
more," he said.At the opening ceremony on Wednesday, Ethiopian Prime
Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said that the rail line would be a
transformational boost to the economy.
"It will provide huge
benefits to the industrial parks and modern farms transporting livestock that will be built in the future," he said. "It will be easier, more efficient," he
said. The railway was 70% financed by China's Exim Bank and built by China
Railway Group and China Civil Engineering Construction.
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