The nation's second toll road, Dire Dawa - Dewele, will become operational in two months and is slated for an inauguration ceremony to be attended by high officials.

Constructed for 5.9 billion Br - 85pc financed by China’s EX-IM Bank - the 220Km asphalt road was recently finalised and only awaits the completion of its toll plazas, the entrances and exits where drivers pay their tolls. The road was expected to be inaugurated this weekend by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) but was postponed to an unspecified date due to two other inaugurations, Jimma Industrial Park and Jimma University's new hospital.

The Ethiopian Road Authority hired China's CGCOC Group for the construction of the road in October 2014, and the consulting contract was given to Shandong Great Supervision and Consultation Co., Ltd, a Chinese road design and construction consultancy.

CGCOC Group, the company which has previously constructed the Ethiopian Glass Factory and the Nile River Bridge Project and is currently working on the Addis-Africa International Exhibition & Convention Center, executed the projects for a cost of 17 million Br a kilometre.

"We were facing security threats, since the project is found in Somali Regional State," Mung Jibo, project manager of the road project, told Fortune.

The project faced protests from local residents in the area who claimed that they did not receive proper compensation. The road will connect Ethiopia with Djibouti, along the existing road from Dewele to Djibouti.

Constructed by a workforce of 5,000, the two-way highway has a width of 10m in rural areas and 21.5m in urban areas. The road has a 10cm thickness, crosses over 29 bridges and will have three toll plazas.

The project was expected to be delivered last year, but the Authority extended the delivery date by one year, since the project was modified to make the road thicker, according to Samson Wendimu, communications director of ERA. The government has targeted 220,000Km in road coverage by the end of the second edition of the Growth & Transformation Plan (GTP II) in 2020.