The huge new £2bn bridge to link one of world's prettiest countries to stunning island - When completed, the bridge connecting mainland Tanzania with the island of Zanzibar will be the longest in Africa at over 31 miles long, costing around £2bn.

 

Tanzania, a country in East Africa, plans to build the largest bridge in Africa, a 31-mile-long bridge, connecting the mainland to the Zanzibar islands in a bid to boost trade and the country’s economy, which on the islands is driven mainly by tourism. 

The bridge, which is yet to be named, will connect Tanzania’s major city, Dar es Salaam with the archipelago in the Indian Ocean, whose islands sit between 16 and 31 miles off the coast of the African mainland.

Zanzibar is made up of many small islands and two large islands, Unguja (informally known as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. 

The Tanzanian government’s promotion of the island caused a surge in tourism, from 19,000 in 1985 to almost 638,500 in 2023, a 16.4 percent surge from the previous year.

In May 2023, Geoffrey Kasekenya, Tanzania’s deputy minister of Works and Transport, announced that the China Overseas Engineering Group Company (COVEC) has expressed an interest in collaborating on the project and was involved in talks with stakeholders on both sides of the proposed bridge. 

At this point, talks were said to be in “advanced stages”, according to The Citizen. 

The Tanzanian President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, was said to be prioritising boosting trade with the rest of the continent and taking advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, wrote Construction Briefing.

The government is also discussing plans to build a rail link with Kenya and an electrified railway to connect with Burundi, passing through the Democratic Republic of Congo in an attempt to reduce trade barriers. 

Original proposals for the Tanzania-Zanzibar bridge date back to 2020, with an expected completion date of 2028. However, little progress has been documented since the announcement in Parliament in spring 2023. 

At the time, the government’s estimated cost was set at $2.7 billion (£2 billion) and is expected to be a public-private partnership, with some funding from the African Development Bank. 

Currently, the longest bridge in Tanzania is the 0.62-mile Mkapa Bridge, which spans the Rufiji River, the longest in the country. The new bridge, however, is expected to be fifty times longer. 

Kirk, T. (2023, September 7). Huge new £2bn bridge to link one of world's prettiest countries to stunning island. Express. https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1943513/huge-new-bridge-tanzania-zanzibar