A preparation mission from the bank is already here for talks with pertinent authorities on the arrangements of the financing schedule for the project, according to knowledgeable sources.

An appraisal mission from the bank is expected to come here in February 2009. Representatives of the bank and the concerned government authorities will hold a series of talks from this week on until the final financing approval is made in June next year, if all goes according to plan.

The project, expected to cost over 1.8 billion birr, will upgrade the deteriorated road that served for the last thirty years to an asphalt concrete level.

The highway project is included in the government’s third phase 35 billion road sector development program.

The bank has similarly agreed to finance the highway extending from Moyale to Nairobi, which forms a major trunk of the trans-East Africa highway.

The Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) will next year invite local and foreign consultants and issue a tender for the project after securing the finance.