Transportation

Transport

Transport has a vital role in a country with an area of one million square miles whose area is equal to 20 European states, and cosidered as the ninth country in the world in terms of an area being described as the (country continent). Transport is the basic pillar of economic and social development of today's world. Developing nations, including Sudan, have recognized the importance of transport and its role in the development of the society and in accelerating process of growth.

The sector of transport is formed from several bodies of complementary roles to carry out the transport operation in the country. It includes the railways, river transport, air transport, sea transport, the Mechanical Transport Department and the Sea Ports Corporation.

Railways:

Sudan Railways, of 4750 km-long-track is the second rail network in the African Continent. It covers the whole country from Port Sudan in the east to Nyala in the west and from Wadi-Halfa in the north to Wau in the south.

The Attbra city of the River Nile State is the main workshops' center. Five regions distributed over the country assume supervision and follow-up of work with branch workshops in the towns of Kassala, Kosti, Sinar, El-Obied and El-Rahad.

Sudan has known railways since the coming of the British to the country by the end ofthe nineteenth century. It developed over the years until it reached the capacity of handling 85% of the country's imports and exports in the early sixties plus providing transportation facilities to all parts of the country. However, during the recent time the importance of the railways was reduced due to the expansion in motor ways, development of transport vehicle and means, the introduction of air transport and the low-cost river transport.

The Railways have suffered from neglect and low performance and operation efficiency as a result of economic decline in the country during the late 1970's due to many reasons the most important of which is the shortage in foreign currency. The deterioration of performance was addressed, and remedies were undertaken, the government dropped its debts, its management was empowered to take actions and decisions to improve the situation. A new fare of transport on commercial basis was introduced so as to meet cost of operation and to build a surplus to finance the projects of modernization and development depending on its own resources.

Efforts were exerted to complete a number of key basic infrastructures, as a result the process of operation and transport was strengthened and the rail tonnage increased especially as regard to the transportation of crude oil from El-Obied - the refinery; El-Muglad - Abu-Gabra line.

200 tankers were imported to transport oil; heaters were installed in 74 tankers, 8 locomotives were reconditioned to assist in the transportation of the crude oil, Sinar - Damazin line was re-operated, 85% of the crossing bridges on the main Khartoum/Port Sudan rail-line were maintained and 7 new bridges on the west line were constructed.

Meanwhile companies from Malaysia and Turkey carried out field surveys for the construction of new railway lines between Khartoum and Port Sudan via Attbra, another line between Kassala and El-Gadref and a third one from Sinar up to Nyala. Work in all these sectors would commence in 2003.

The private sector also entered in the investment in the railways as the Sudanese Duty Free Zones and Markets Company provided 100 locomotives.

Sea Ports:

The Sea Ports Corporation is another major contributor in the transport sector. Port Sudan is the main port for imports and exports. The Othman Digna sea port was established and developed by reinnovating the entrance and the water course to allow receiving larger ships and passengers' steamers in order to reduce the burden off the main port.

Another sea port of Oasaif was constructed on the northern coast at Halaieb in addition to Bashayer port for exportation of oil. Modern cranes work in different ports of the country in addition to several other machinery and bridge winches. Within the same plan floating reams for lifts of containers were established averaging 80 containers per hour and the storage capacity of the containers increased to accommodate the increasing number of ships visiting the various sea ports.

Exports increased and external trade grew as a result of services provided by the sea ports. Livestock exports amounted to 1.1 million head and the number of transported containers reached 61,000 in addition to the transportation of other goods.

New navigation lines were opened with the Gulf, West Africa and Pacific ports for export of Sudanese crude oil to Singapore and other ports. And new avenues for Sudan external trade were opened.

As a direct result, the capacity of the port of Port Sudan increased to 11 million tones in 2003.

River Transport:

The river transport plays a significant role in linking south Sudan with the north. It contributes to the transportation of requirements of the South including relief items in cooperation with the Operation Life-line Sudan (OLS).

Work has begun in the rehabilitation of the current fleet and in increasing the number of the barges and steamers, in addition the rehabilitation of workshops and the cleaning of the river corridor enhancing transport along the Nile north/south.

Sea Transport:

Sea transport plays a major role in serving exports and imports. The Sudanese Sea Lines Company is operating regular steamers to northwest Europe, UK, to the ports of Spurn, Hamburg, Anthrop, Lorene and to Tripoli and Benghazi ports in Libya. Sudanese ships reach the ports of the Mediterranean Sea and the Adriatic of Valencia, Barcelona, Genoa, Naples and the ports of the Red Sea of Assab, Berbera, Mogadishu and Port Sudan.

Air Transport:

Sudan is a member state at ICAO and is committed to the international aviation regulations through the Civil Aviation Corporation.

All aviation safety standards, including satellite monitoring, modern security devices, fire control and ground assistances are available in several airports of the country.

Sudan as an extensive and vast country is in critical need to develop its aviation services and expanding air transport to connect the different parts of the country economically, socially and culturally and to strengthen its extemal relations.

A big breakthrough was achieved in the area of building new airports. The number of airports with international standards increased from one at Khartoum Airport to nine international airports in addition to private airports and landing strips, including Port Sudan, Kassala, Dongola, El-Fashir, Merve, Wadi-Saydna, Malakal, Juba and Nyala.

In terms of air transport industry, Sudan has modern communications and navigation equipment where Radar network was installed to cover Sudan airspace, and also (R.O.V) equipment were installed at the airports of Nayala and Juba.

The Civil Aviation Corporation has participated in several conferences and committees and intematianal agreements, in the context of air transport including the transport committee of the World Trade Organization (WTO), joint ministerial committees (Iraq - Nigeria), Montreal Agreement 99 on the unification of some rules of international air transport, the United Nations Conference on Air Transport, the talks on the opening of air line between Sudan and Libya, the negotiations on agreements between Sudan and Niger and Mali, and also the renewal bilateral agreements with Iraq and Yemen.