Transport in Rwanda

Map showing principal routes in Rwanda.

The transport system in Rwanda centres primarily around the road network. Paved roads lie between the capital, Kigali, and most other major cities and towns in the country. Rwanda is also linked by road with other countries in the African Great Lakes, via which the majority of the country's imports and exports are made.

The country has an international airport at Kigali, serving one domestic and several international destinations, and also has limited transport between the port cities on Lake Kivu. There are currently no railways in Rwanda.

A large amount of investment in the transport infrastructure has been made by the government since the 1994 genocide, with aid from the European Union, China, Japan and others.

The road network

Rwanda has a total of 12,000 km (7,500 mi) of roads, of which 1,000 km (620 mi) are paved.[1] The remainder are dirt roads with quality varying from smooth hard surfaces with drainage to rutted, extremely uneven tracks passable only with a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Paved roads

Most of the main towns in the country are now connected by paved road. The condition of these roads was until recently very poor, with numerous pot-holes and vehicles often driving on the dirt verges since these were deemed smoother than the road itself. A recent government programme of upgrading and resurfacing means that most major routes are now in good condition.

The major urban arteries of Kigali, as well as the high streets in Ruhengeri, Kibuye and Gisenyi are dual carriageways, but all national long distance roads are single carriageway. There are no motorways in Rwanda.

The principal routes are (refer to map for number references):

# Start End Via Description
1 Kigali Gatuna (Uganda border) Byumba The main road through the north of the country, this is the main route to Kabale and Kampala in Uganda
2 Kigali Kayonza Rwamagana Leads east from the capital. Resurfacing of this road was recently completed, and it features Rwanda's first proper bypass around the town of Rwamagana
2a Kayonza Kagitumba (Uganda border) Nyagatare A continuation of road 2, running to the far northeast of the country. Prior to 1994 most of this road was within the Akagera National Park but the area has now been settled, largely by refugees who returned from Uganda after the war.
2b Kayonza Rusumo (Tanzania border) Kibungo The main route into Tanzania, running down to the far southeast of the country. The border is a high bridge over the Kagera River (which is also part of the most distant headwater of the Nile)
3 Kigali Fugi (Burundi border) Gitarama, Butare The road linking the main two cities of Rwanda as well as being the main link to Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi. The section south of Gitarama was resurfaced in 2004.
3a Gitarama Kibuye, Rwanda This road was surfaced for the first time by Chinese engineers within the last decade, running through very hilly terrain and crossing the Nile/Congo watershed.
3b Butare Cyangugu (DRC border) Gikongoro A very stretch of road running through the heart of Nyungwe Forest and ending on the shores of Lake Kivu. It also links to the Congolese city of Bukavu.
4 Kigali Gisenyi (DRC border) Ruhengeri A road that passes first through the hilly areas around Mount Kabuye and then turns west to head along the southern edge of the Virunga volcano chain, before ending up at Gisenyi, on the shores of Lake Kivu. The road continues into Goma in the DRC.
4a Ruhengeri Cyanika (Uganda border) A road linking to Ruhengeri to Kisoro in Uganda. Passes very close to Mount Muhabura, and has a vista right along the Virunga chain.
5 Kigali Burundi border Nyamata The road was paved a fairly recently since the government of Rwanda is considering building a new international airport near the town of Nyamata.[2]

There is also one road which is currently a quite poor quality dirt road, but may soon be upgraded to paved status:

Public transport

International

There are several daily coach services from Rwanda to destinations in the African Great Lakes:

In addition the national express share taxi services (see below) to Gisenyi and Cyangugu often cross the DRC border to carry passengers to Goma and Bukavu respectively.

National

A row of minibus share taxis waiting to depart in Kigali

The main form of public transport within Rwanda is the Share taxi, known locally simply as taxi or, colloquially, twegerane, which means 'let's sit together' in the Kinyarwanda language (a conventional private taxi is referred to as a special hire or taxi voiture). These share taxis come in two forms:

In addition to these two forms of share taxi, there is a limited national bus service run by a company called Onatracom, which is affiliated with the Rwandan government. These run between Kigali and the major towns two or three times per day, and have the advantage of greater leg room and luggage space but generally take longer to reach their destinations. Onatracom buses also serve some remote areas along dirt roads not otherwise accessible by public transport.

Urban

Public transport in Kigali takes the form of the stopping share taxis mentioned above, but running much more frequently due to greater demand. While the national ones are typically unmarked, Kigali taxis have a yellow stripe running round the vehicle, on which is imprinted the start and end points of its route. Most services start or finish either in the city centre or at Nyabugogo, the city's main national bus station.

A recent survey carried out by the Transport Companies Association in Kigali gives us the following statistics: There are 19 bus companies operating a total of 1633 buses of various makes, models and sizes in various parts of Rwanda. In Kigali City itself there are 622 buses operating. Of these 622, 90.6% of them are small Toyota Hiace vehicles, mostly more than 10 years old, and many much older. Of the larger type vehicles carrying up to 30 passengers or so there are 58 units of which 34.4% are new vehicles owned and operated by Kigali Bus Services Ltd.

Air transport

Kigali International Airport

The country's main air gateway is Kigali International Airport, which is located at Kanombe, a suburb approximately 10 km (6 mi) from Kigali city centre. The airport has international flights to Lagos, Brazzaville, Dubai, Nairobi, Entebbe, Addis Ababa, Bujumbura, Johannesburg, Amsterdam, Brussels and Doha and is the main airport for the national carrier RwandAir.

There are plans being discussed to build a new airport at Nyamata in Bugesera district, approximately 40 km (25 mi) from Kigali which would be much bigger and could act as a hub for the entire region. The only other airport in the country with passenger service is Kamembe Airport, which is in the city of Cyangugu. RwandAir operates a service between Kigali and Kamembe, which serves southwestern Rwanda and the Congolese city of Bukavu.

Water transport

Lake Kivu

This is by far the largest of Rwanda's lakes, forming the border with the DRC. There are occasional boat services between the major ports of Cyangugu, Kibuye and Gisenyi but these do not run to a regular timetable and often have to be chartered. There are also boats used to ferry people to some of the islands in the lake, but these also do not run regularly. Local fishermen operate along the entirety of the lakeshore, usually in dug-out canoes or other hand-crafted boats. The Rwandan navy operates a few boats on the lake to protect the country against infiltrators from the Congolese side.

Other lakes

Transport on Rwanda's other major lakes is mostly limited to ferries, usually local boats similar to those used to fishing, which transport people from one side to the other. Some lakes have resort bars and hotels, such as Jambo Beach on Lake Muhazi, which can offer a pleasure cruise to their customers in their own speed boat. Local fishermen operate on most lakes.

Railways

There are currently no railways in Rwanda.[4]

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, March 08, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.