The Tanzania National Roads Agency (TANROADS) has spent TZS 860 billion to implement a major emergency road infrastructure program, in response to devastating floods caused by El Niño rains and Cyclone Hidaya between October 2023 and May 2024.
The projects, funded under World Bank-supported initiatives including TanTIP, RISE, MBDP, and the CRW window, aim to restore damaged roads and bridges, ensuring communities can access essential services and continue economic activities without disruption.
Speaking on the progress, TANROADS Director General, Engineer Mohamed Besta, said the program covers 81 emergency projects across 22 regions of mainland Tanzania, including the construction and rehabilitation of roads, bridges, culverts, and drainage systems.
The government, with TZS 860 billion (USD 325 million) in World Bank funding, is implementing the projects under the Contingency Emergency Response Component (CERC), involving 70 local contractors and 11 international firms.
“Currently, the projects are about 68 percent complete. Twelve projects have reached 95–100 percent completion, while 53 are between 50–95 percent,” Engineer Besta said.
He noted that the works have restored connectivity in flood-affected areas, strengthened road and bridge infrastructure, improved safety, accelerated social and economic services, built local contractor capacity, and enhanced coordination between TANROADS, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Finance, and the World Bank for rapid disaster response.
Engineer Besta said TANROADS has also adopted long-term strategies to make infrastructure more resilient, including strengthening designs to withstand climate change impacts, establishing early warning systems, ensuring new projects meet high resilience standards, and developing local technical expertise while maintaining collaboration with the World Bank and other development partners.