The country’s air, road and rail transport facilities all require an extensive programme of modernisation and investment
ravelling
around Angola is a bit of a nightmare. Roads, bridges and railways have
all been severely damaged during years of civil war, to which may be
added problems caused by millions of land mines littering the countryside,
as well as flooding in the rainy season and drought elsewhere.
Efforts are now being made to rebuild key routes, but the fact that
so many bridges have been destroyed means that transporting materials
is especially difficult. The reopening of the road linking the cities
of Huambo and Benguela via Londuimbali, for example, depended entirely
on the reconstruction of bridges over the Colongue and Cuito rivers.
Despite the fact that the Huambo-Londuimbali-Benguela road was paved,
until the bridges were built motorists were obliged to go via Ganda.
Seasonal rains caused severe damage to this route earlier this year
and it took drivers up to 25 days to make the journey.
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The
Empresa
Nacional de Pontes (National Bridges Company, or ENP) is struggling
to reopen routes as fast as it can. General manager Antonio
Gois says: “Everything that was of benefit to the
population was destroyed during the war. The majority of the bridges
have been destroyed.” He says some can be repaired, but many others
will have to be replaced with entirely new structures. “Our objective
is to connect the entire country through the reconstruction of bridges,
and at the same time connect areas where only ENP can go.
“Foreign firms will not go to remote areas because of the lack
of security. So it is our duty to reconstruct the bridges. We are a
public company and so we must work all over the country.”
ENP is not yet being considered for privatisation, but joint ventures
with foreign firms have not been ruled out. Mr Gois hopes such a venture
may be created with a British firm that has been supplying steel girder
bridges. ENP, which employs around 400 people, also carries out road
building and other civil works.
The
vast majority of businessmen, international visitors and politicians
use planes to reach Angola’s cities and towns, and air transport
will remain vital for the distribution of goods until the roads and
railways have been sufficiently repaired. It is not, however, an option
available to the vast majority of the population, most of whom work
on the land, and much perishable agricultural produce is unable to reach
wider markets. Nor is it always possible to deliver vital goods and
materials to many remote rural areas.
As with all sectors of the country’s economy, investment is desperately
needed to ensure that the aviation system continues to function adequately.
Manuel Nunes Junior, chairman and managing director of the National
Airport Operations and Air Navigation Company (ENANA), says renovation
of Luanda’s 4th February Airport, Angola’s sole international
facility, is “a move that cannot wait much longer or the airport
itself will enter into a stage of collapse”.
Work on renovating the airport has already begun and the cost is estimated
at $300 million. Mr Nunes Junior says most of the work will be self-financed.
The 4th February Airport is mainly used for cargo, including fuel, raw
materials and food. It handles fewer than one million passengers a year.
Plans
for a second international airport in Luanda are being drawn up. Two
sites are being considered, Viana and Cabo Ledo, but construction work
is not expected to begin until 2015 and would take up to 10 years to
complete. In the meantime, Huambo airport will act as an alternative
international link when poor weather affects Luanda.
There are 18 airports and a number of small landing strips around the
country, and all the provinces are accessible by air. “Aircraft
are the most frequently used means of transport in the country,”
adds Mr Nunes Junior.
A number of state-owned airlines have recently consolidated to form
a single group. The move will add to the operational fleet of national
carrier TAAG.
The airlines involved are Sociedade de Aviacao Ligeira (SAL), Angola
Air Charter (AAC) and Sonair. SAL, which is 51 per cent-owned by
TAAG and 49 per cent-owned by state diamond authority Endiama, has nine
Beechcraft passenger aircraft and a staff of 200, including 50 pilots.
AAC is mainly a cargo operation while Sonair, an offshoot of state oil
company Sonangol, is used to ferry around oil officials.
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AAC
carries cargo throughout the region, including the Democratic Republic
of Congo, Namibia and Congo Brazzaville. “We no longer fly to Europe
and the US,” says general manager Alfredo
Varo Kaputu. “First we have to consolidate here
and in the Southern African Development Community (of which Angola is
a member). We hope to restart international flights within two years.”
Back on the ground, Caminho de Ferro de Luanda (CFL) is seeking $600
million to rehabilitate the railway infrastructure. So too is the Benguela
Railway Company, which operates the 1,340km Benguela line, the longest
in Angola. It is also possible that concessions will be offered to operator-investors
in the railways.
Angola’s main port is Luanda, which handled nearly 1.9 million
tonnes of cargo last year, an increase of about 400,000 tonnes on 1999.
However, the port is still plagued by difficulties, including broken
cranes and warehouses that are in a state of disrepair.
It needs around $200 million dollars to modernise its facilities and,
according to reports, the number of short-term private operators is
likely to be reduced.
The Italian government has expressed an interest in the construction
of a new port at Porto Amboin on the central coast in Kwanza Sul province.
The provincial authorities have begun to rehabilitate the old port,
which has not been used since 1989.
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