New networks: Infrastructure upgrades are helping to enhance connectivity

The $286bn that Algeria has set aside for infrastructure development under the current five-year development plan, which runs through 2015, has already had a sizable impact not only in terms of network capacity, but also on operational efficiency nationwide. New highways have been built, new tramways have begun operations, travel times are decreasing and connectivity is on the rise. One of the policy priorities of the infrastructure initiative is to ensure that transport networks across Algeria – and not just in the principal urban zones – receive due attention, and the works under way in the wilaya (province) of Béjaïa, to the east of Algiers, highlight the impact that this national spending programme is having on secondary regions throughout the country.

MARITIME: The push to improve the nation’s transport infrastructure has a tangible effect on those wilayas where transport links are central to economic activity. Béjaïa, for example, a coastal zone of more than 320,000 ha with a population of roughly 1m, is defined in large part by its port in the administrative capital of Béjaïa. The port facilities, which are under the supervision of Entreprise Portuaire de Béjaïa (EPB) and were last significantly expanded in 1987, have a draught of around 13.5 metres for tankers and 12 metres for other vessels, and are primarily designed to receive feeder ships. The port has liquid and dry bulk terminals, as well as passenger facilities and a container terminal spread out along 2750 metres of quays. Hydrocarbons – both crude and refined products – make up the majority of its liquid bulk, accounting for an average of about 10m tonnes annually in recent years and comprising as much as 86% of port traffic. Passenger numbers have generally hovered around 35,000 per year.

UPGRADES: Container operations at the Port of Béjaïa have seen the most significant changes in recent years, following a 2004 agreement between EPB and Singapore’s Portek International, which created the Béjaïa Mediterranean Terminal (BMT). The two parties formed a joint venture to manage the port’s container operations – one of the first such deals in Algeria, although the agency in charge of port privatisation, Sogeports, has since paved the way for similar partnerships elsewhere, including the Port of Algiers, now managed by UAE-based Dubai Ports World. Immediately following the partnership signing, BMT’s container traffic jumped from 12,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in 2004 to 80,000 TEUs in late 2006, and the BMT now has a capacity of roughly 300,000 TEUs. The port has a total of 400,000 sq metres of uncovered storage and an additional 17,500 of covered storage, and it is also one of the few facilities in Algeria to have refrigerated storage in the container terminal.

The creation of the BMT has been central to helping underwrite growth in the wilaya, given that a number of the large, labour-intensive activities in Béjaïa rely on the port for both cabotage and exports, including Danone, Michelin and Général Emballage. That being said, further expansions to capacity will be necessary, as congestion has slowed down activity. “The plans for expansion to port facilities and related infrastructure are a reason for optimism, although current congestion has forced us to work with our shipping lines to look at alternative facilities for the short term,” Abdel Moumène Allouache, manager of local firm AB Cuisine, told OBG.

DRY PORT: Indeed, ports are only of limited utility if they do not have a widespread network of ancillary infrastructure, which has prompted the national government and the wilaya to focus on strengthening links with the country’s key distribution nodes. Given that it takes up to three hours without traffic to reach nearby Algiers, Béjaïa’s port is in need of both better multimodal facilities and transit links.

One of the priorities in this programme is a AD3.5bn (€33.25m), 20-ha dry port to be built in the town of Tixter south of the city of Béjaïa, which will serve as a logistics centre for the port to link containers with the national railway line and facilitate distribution towards the Hauts-Plateaux region. The dry port is due to be completed by the end of 2014. A smaller AD500m (€4.75m), 5-ha logistics facility is also under construction in Ighil Oberouak, roughly 5 km from the port, to provide additional capacity for container processing and multimodal connectivity.

SUPPORTING LINKS: Equally important for the port and its environs, rail and road connections are also undergoing renovation. Currently, the primary roads linking Béjaïa to the East-West Highway, for example, are often heavily congested and can take up to three hours to traverse, although a consortium including Chinese Railway Construction Corp. and Société Algérienne des Ponts & Travaux d’Arts has now begun work on a AD100bn (€950m) feeder road with seven interchanges, due to be completed by 2016.

Meanwhile, a new rail line is being built alongside the wilaya’s sole 90-km rail link to the national network, with work set to finish by 2018. The new line will allow for freight trains of up to 100 km per hour and passenger trains of up to 120 km, significantly reducing transit times within the interior, but the AD106bn (€1bn) project has faced local opposition over land use rights. Once completed, it will offer a significant increase in capacity for shipments to and from the port, allowing for a potential doubling in rail traffic volumes, according to media reports.

URBAN TRANSPORT: Béjaïa is also undergoing a spate of public works projects that look set to reduce traffic congestion and improve connectivity within the wilaya, and within its main city. Under the government’s national development plan, several cities have been targeted for overhauls of their urban transport networks, which in many cases were minimal at best. Perhaps the best example of this new push is the new metro line in central Algiers, which has been paired with a new tramway that extends to outlying residential areas, but other metropolitan areas have also seen the inauguration of new networks as well. Oran and Constantine have both unveiled new tramways over the past 24 months, for example. However, Béjaïa is no exception and has also seen a significant increase in intra-urban transport options over recent years, with more on the way.

Until 2010, urban transport in Béjaïa – as in many cities – was largely dependent on private buses and shared taxis. In July 2010 Etablissement de Transport Urbain de Béjaïa (ETUB) was established, giving the wilaya its first public transit agency. Over the intervening couple of years, ETUB has purchased a fleet of more than 30 buses to connect neighbourhoods within Béjaïa city and surrounding villages. The municipality also saw the construction of a 4500-sq-metre bus station at the entrance of the town in early 2010, with a capacity of more than 52 buses. Another secondary bus station is planned for Akbou, a town further inland from the coast. The public bus system has put private operators under pressure, as evidenced in 2012 when the three labour unions that represent private operators unilaterally doubled their prices. Passengers refused to pay and ETUB increased its service frequency to compensate. The price hikes were eventually rolled back, although following lengthy discussions with ETUB and the wali ( provincial governor), the three syndicates raised them again at the beginning of 2013 to minimal protest.

CABLE TRAMWAY: Béjaïa is set to see some more dramatic projects going forward, including an aerial cable tramway linking four locations in Béjaïa city, from Lakhmis to Cité Amimoune to Plateau des Ruines to Fort Gouraya. The project, which is being overseen by Entreprise du Métro d’Alger (EMA), was initially listed in the five-year national development plan in 2009, although it only began seeing tangible progress in 2013. The EMA pushed back the deadline for bid submissions to construct the Béjaïa cable tramway system – along with bid deadlines for three other aerial systems in Algiers, Constantine and Aïn Témouchent – by one month to August 2013, but at time of writing, the results had yet to be released.