Egypt, Sudan to establish road link

CAIRO, Nov 2 (AFP) — Egypt and Sudan agreed Sunday to build the first asphalted road between them, at a cost of 88 million dollars, the official MENA news agency reported.

Ministers from the two countries signed an agreement to build a 280 kilometer (174 mile) stretch of asphalt along the Red Sea coast, extending from the border to the city of Port Sudan, said MENA.

According to Monday’s issue of the state-owned Al-Akhbar newspaper, the Egyptian government will bear half the cost of the road and an unnamed Egyptian company will undertake its construction.

Overland travel from Cairo to Khartoum currently stops at Aswan, in Upper Egypt. Travellers then cross Lake Nasser by boat and disembark in the Sudanese city of Halfa before resuming the journey by road to the Sudanese capital.