Announcement of 7.7 Million Dollars for Highway Maintenance in Mali on June 3, 1970

• INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION 1818 H STREET. N.W .. WASHINGTON D. C. 20433 TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 IDA Press Release No. 70/22 Subject: $7.7 million for highway June 3, 1970 maintenance in Mali A credit of $7.7 million from the Interr.ational Development Association (IDA) will help finance a project designed to ensure adequate maintenance of the highway network in Mali, upon which a large part of the country's external trade depends. The project will strengthen the National Directorate of Public Works, a Government agency responsible for the administration and maintenance of most of Mali's roads; improve about 900 miles of agricultural feeder roads; and provide consultants' ser- vices for feasibility studies and detailed engineering of some 250 miles of trunk roads • • Road transport plays a vital role in the economy of land-locked Mali, which is bounded by Upper Volta, the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria and Niger. In addition to reorganizing the Directorate's equipment department, the project will provide the Directorate with highway maintenance equipment and spare parts, train maintenance staff, and expand maintenance workshops. The feeder roads to be improved will help accelerate the Government's efforts to encourage production of cash crops, particularly cotton and groundnuts. Also included in the project aie technical and economic studies for the reconstruction and strengthening of two of the most heavily traveled roads in Mali, both branching out from Lamako, the capital, one to Segou and the other to Bougouni. The project is based on a road transport survey financed partly by the United Nations Development Programme, with the World Bank as Executing Agency. • The ~roject will be executed by the National Directorate of Public Works, with the assi .:a.nee of consultants, and is scheduled for completion in 1975. It is esti- mated to cost $9.3 million equivalent, of which $7.7 million will be financed by the IDA credit and the remainder by the Government. The credit will be extended to the Republic of Mali for a term of 50 years, in- cluding 10 years of grace, interest-free, with a service charge of 3/4 of 1%. - 0 -