For a few months now, there has been no other talk in certain circles in the capital of Madagascar, and the story has a lot to do…
The President of the Republic (Andry Nirina Rajoelina) is determined to build a cable car (aerial cable car transport) covering certain residential districts of the capital, as well as the historic center (declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site).
The cost of this project amounts to more than 150 million Euros (received via a bank loan from a French entity and to be repaid with interest) and does not seem to be one of the short-term priorities in one of the poorest countries in the world.
There are several dark areas in this project. From the outset, its feasibility seems difficult in a city steeped between hills, its neighborhoods separated by extensive rice paddies and marshes. The opaque studies carried out to date offer no guarantee of success in the short term. Then there is the expected cost of this transport (there is talk in high places that the ticket will cost about 4,000 ARIRAYS per way, or about 1 Euro, when the shared transport in minibuses and used by 80% of the inhabitants of the capital does not exceed 500 ARIRAYS per way). Not to mention that in order to lay out the cableway (posts and pylons, towers, stations), many private lands must be expropriated, as well as fly over houses, schools, hospitals… In a country where the word maintenance does not exist, the truth is that it seems extremely risky.
For the moment, the few surveys carried out and the feelings of the street allow us to venture that the majority of the population of Antananarivo is against the project due to several factors. However, this data does not seem to curb the publicity desires of the Head of State, who has already commissioned the project to the French company COLAS and is expected to start the works in 2023.
I do not know, as an inhabitant of Antananarivo it is true that I would like to end the insufferable traffic jams, but I think that this means of transport suitable for more developed countries, would not fit among the population that earns little more than 1 dollar a day. Not to mention that many Malagasy (especially the middle class) are reluctant to take to the heights of the skies to get around their capital….
There are other priorities in the country and in the city, and other ways to put an end to traffic jams… Only if the Technical Control of vehicles circulating in the capital (your ITV) were respected, traffic officers were seriously trained and some fast roads were laid out, it would put an end to the endemic traffic jams endemic to some neighborhoods of Antananarivo at certain hours. It would be cheaper and more effective, but it would perhaps give less hype to the President of the Republic in his election year (elections for the head of state are due in 2023).
