Amar Ghoul: “East-West highway project to be wrapped up soon”

The East-West Highway project will be fully wrapped up before the end of 2011 or in early 2012, in accordance with contractual deadlines, the Minister of Public Works, Mr. Amar Ghoul said Tuesday in a statement to Echorouk.

• Some 95% of the East-West highway project has been completed, and the remaining 5% will be received before the end of 2011 or in early 2012 in line with the contractual time-frame, he said.

•  90% the East-West Highway was delivered « before the deadline », he said in response to a question by Echorouk reporter about the ripeness of the total project delivery.

• Concerning the overall cost of this giant project, the minister said that it reached 752 billion Dinars (about 11 billion dollars).

• The average cost of production of one kilometer of the highway is about 8 million Euros, while the international average is set at 14 million, he explained.

• With regard to the 14 petrol stations whose construction is planned along the highway, the Minister noted that these infrastructures would be delivered in the course of December.

• Otherwise, the construction works for those roads penetrating the highway linking the wilayas or provinces of Jijel, Bejaia, Tlemcen, Constantine, Tipasa, Oran and Mostaganem will be launched in early 2012, he asserted.

• To a question on the rate of toll motorway, M. Ghoul said only that the fees required would be quite affordable and the revenues earned would be used to maintain the highway and to ensure a high-grade quality service to the users.

• In terms of compensation for expropriated citizens as part of the achievement of this mega project, M. Ghoul said it was not easy to compensate around 20.000 families at a time, adding that 97% cases had been settled out of court and 3% were still  before Justice.

• M. Ghoul also seized the opportunity to recall the special interest granted by the Algerian state to the country’s South and Highlands by devoting over 60% of the current budget earmarked for the five-year development program to the sector of public works.