Ethiopia on Saturday launched the construction of the first traffic control center at a cost of $27 million in its capital, Addis Ababa.
The construction of traffic control center is one of the government’s flagship efforts to reduce the growing number of causalities due to road traffic accidents across the country.
5,118 lives were lost last year due to road traffic accidents, while over ten thousand survived with heavy and light injuries.
It is estimated that currently there are a total of around one million vehicles in Ethiopia, of which the majority are very old, highly pollutant to the environment and a health hazard to the people who use them.
Speed is one of the major reasons causing the death of thousands of people, according to a relevant report.
It is indicated that for the past three years, the country has been preparing to build the traffic control center.
The construction of the state-of-the-art centre will be undertaken by China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) is scheduled to be completed within 18 months.
The center will provide information on traffic conditions, change duration of traffic lights depending on the flow of traffic and identify traffic violation.
The city’s mayor engineer Takele Uma launched construction work for the center which will have offices, a traffic control room, information processing and crime control units as well as accident registration areas.
According to Takele, the administration will soon open toll routes in selected parts of the city.
MG/as/APA