By Hayal Alemayehu

The Addis Ababa City Roads Authority refuted on Thursday "distorted" media reports regarding the construction of a city road project that crosses the Ethio-Djibouti railway station and head office.

The authority rejected media reports which stated that the historic Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway   station head office may be demolished owing to massive city road projects being undertaken by the authority.

"The city road projects strictly follow the Addis Ababa city master plan designed earlier on," the authority's general manager, Fikadu Haile, told reporters. "And the master plan took into consideration that all historic heritages in the city, including the historic Ethio-Djibouti railway station head office, are protected."

He said that media reports made earlier without consulting the pertinent authority had created confusion amongst the community while affirming that the road construction will not demolish the head office of the Ethio-Djibouti railway.

The construction of the road, however, will no more allow the Ethio-Djibouti railway head office building to continue serving as the headquarters and will divert the railway station for future services.

The road project in question is a 3.1 km. long, 40 m. wide asphalt road that stretches from Gofa Mazoria to Kirkos to Ethio-Djibouti railway station around Legehar.

The segment of this road project measuring 2.1 km. was completed two year ago.

The construction of the remaining one km. long asphalt road is scheduled to commence next year.