Addis Abeba will receive 500 additional bus shelters before the end of the current Ethiopian year at a cost of 156.6 million Br.

Jiangxi Water & Hydropower Construction Company secured the contract for the second phase of the project and started construction last September. The project, managed by the city Transport Authority, is expected to be completed in mid-2019.

The company won the international competition, which also included local contractors.

“The Ethiopian construction companies offered double the price compared to the winner,” Dawit Zeleke, director of the Authority told Fortune. “This has made us award the project to the foreign company.”

The Authority installed the same number of shelters a year ago at a cost of 93 million Br, which was also contracted to the same firm. The construction is the second phase of the plan to build 2,000 bus shelters in the second edition of the Growth & Transformation Plan (GTP).

When completed, the shelters can serve up to 20 people at a time and will be located on major roads of the capital.

The shelters are built targeting commuters that use the two state-owned bus companies, Anbessa City Bus Service Enterprise and Sheger Mass Transit Service Enterprise, the privately-owned Alliance Bus company and taxis.

The city needs at least 17,000 public vehicles to satisfy demand, according to the city’s Transport Authority. The government has only met 69.7pc of this demand.

"The shelters have different features compared to the existing ones with slight design improvements,” said Dawit.

The shelters come with two options: with and without the bench seats. Also, in congested areas of the city, the bus stop shelters will come without walls, enabling people to pass through them when the sidewalks are narrow.