In the long term, the journey between the Senegalese capital and Blaise-Diagne International Airport, or 57 kilometers, will be done in 45 minutes.
Le Monde with AFP
The President of Senegal Macky Sall launched Saturday, March 5 the construction site of the second phase of the Regional Express Train (TER) of Dakar aimed at designering the capital after the inauguration in December 2021 of a first section.
the ter connects since December, in about twenty minutes, the 36 kilometers separating the center of Dakar to the new city of Diamniadio, a well-known ride from motorists for its monster traffic jams, in a region of nearly 4 million ‘inhabitants. The line will be prolonged 19 kilometers, either on the section between Diamniadio and Diass where the Blaise-Dakar International Airport of Dakar is located.
The work, of the amount of 204 billion CFA francs (some € 310 million) will be funded in particular by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Bank of Investment of ECOWAS (IDBC) and French loans, we learned from the APIX, the public agency which ensures project management.
Designing Dakar
At the end, the trip between Dakar and the airport, 57 kilometers, will be done in 45 minutes with the ter, according to the Apix. The commissioning of the first phase had been repeated several times since the launch of the work in early 2017. This first section had cost 780 billion CFA francs (more than 1.1 billion euros) funded on own funds and thanks to Loans – especially French – by the state of Senegal.
Twenty French companies, including Eiffage, Engie, Thales, SNCF, but also Turkish and Senegalese, participated in the project. The TER is a component of the Senegal Emerging Plan (PES), a development program intended to be completed by the 2035 horizon and initiated by President Sall, to power since 2012.
The railway project aims to designate Dakar, which focuses on 0.3% of the territory on the fifth of some 17 million Senegalese and almost all the economic activities of the country. Traffic jams officially cost the city 152 million euros a year. The new line has been criticized, especially from people expropriated along the journey.