The murram road that’s under construction in Gisagara District is set to ease doing business in the area and access to other districts, residents said.

The 28 kilometre road, with 7 metres wide, begins at the border of Gisagara and Huye districts.It connects the sectors of Save, Gikonko and Mamba of Gisagara District, leading to Rwanda-Burundi border at Akanyaru River.

The Rwf2.5 billion road, whose construction is being done by Fair Construction Company, started about two months ago and is expected to be completed by July.

It is a project under Rwanda Transport Development Agency (RTDA).

Residents said, upon completion, the road will ease movement of both people and goods.

Business was slow as traders sometimes feared going to markets to buy products due to the poor roads,’’ residents added.

"Musha trading centre will be easily accessible. This will result in increased economic activities,” said Frasie Mukarusine, a shop owner at Musha Centre.

Agriculture products normally taken to markets in the area include tomatoes, egg plants, rice and beans among others.

"There is need to take tomatoes to the market early in the morning because we usually target restaurant owners. They begin to buy tomatoes at 6am. But because of the poor state of the road, we used to miss the morning customers.

‘‘We are, therefore, optimistic that once the road is completed it will speed up and ease doing business,” said Alphonse Habintwali, Musha Sector resident.

Dorothea Nzamukosha, another resident of Musha Sector, said transport costs were high due to the state of the road.

"We hope more taxis are going to ply this route and address the transport bottlenecks,” she said.

Other residents said that even reaching Huye and Nyanza to connect to Kigali was difficult.

"We used to pay between Rwf1,500 and Rwf2,000 for a taxi-moto to reach the main road in Huye. But, the fare has since been reduced to Rwf600,” said Jeanne Uwiringiyimana, a resident of Save Sector, who does casual jobs in the road construction.

The Gisagara District mayor, Léandre Karekezi, said there are many socioeconomic activities in the area that will benefit from the road.

He said it will facilitate farmers to take their produce to the market as the area has a lot of agriculture produce.

Karekezi outlined several facilities that will benefit from the improved road network.

These include Gakoma Hospital in Mamba Sector, a rice processing plant, a maize flour factory, peat to power project–which seeks to generate power from peat in (Akanyaru) marshland, and schools.

He noted that the new road also presents an investment opportunity in public transport.

"Since the road will be in good condition, transporters will probably pick interest in investing in the transport sector as there are many travellers in the area,” he said.

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