1.
GV Travel shot new road
0.11

2.
Travel shot countryside
0.22

3.
LV Elephant at roadside (2 shots)
0.35

4.
SV Giraffe at roadside
0.40

5.
LV Wild donkeys at roadside
0.46

6.
GV Roadsign
0.53

7.
SV Roadway construction sign
0.58

8.
GV PAN road under construction
1.12

9.
GV & CU road grader
1.23

10.
GV Heavy equipment on construction
1.31

11.
CU Man driving road grader
1.34

12.
GV PAN lorry under new bridge at construction site
1.46



Initials OS/1652 OS/1708



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A new African highway, linking the countries of Kenya and Ethiopia, is well on its way to completion. Begun in 1964, the 1500 mile highway will eventually link Addis Ababa with Nairobi and a connecting link to Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. The total cost of over GBP7,000,000 is being financed by overseas loans and the governments of Kenya and Ethiopia.

Nicknamed "Hell's Highway", by the construction crews, the roadway crosses 1500 miles of some of the most difficult kind of geography. In Kenya it is a Ministry of Works project that has been contracted out to the National Youth Service, a government paramilitary organisation. It is hoped that the highway can be completed in 1972, reducing what was once an 11-day trek by camel and donkey, to a comfortable 48-hour journey by motor-car.

The linking roadway is in line with the Organisation of African Unity's call for better communications between African states. Aptly enough, it was in Addis Ababa last year that delegates from fifty countries formed the African Highway Association. "Within the next 20 years," says a spokesman, "we hope to see all of Africa's capitals linked by highways."
SYNOPSIS: This portion of new roadway through Kenya is part of what is to be an international highway. Crossing fifteen-hundred miles of some of the most difficult terrain in the world, the highway will link Addis Ababa in Ethiopia with Nairobi and Mombasa in Kenya.

Begun in 1964, the first section of completed permanently-surfaced road -- from Mombasa on the Indian Ocean to Nairobi -- was opened in 1968. The total cost of the new construction -- over seven million pounds sterling -- is being financed by overseas loans and the governments of Ethiopia and Kenya. It is hoped that the highway can be completed in 1972.

In Kenya, it is a Ministry of Works project, contracted out to the National Youth Service, a government paramilitary organisation, and ITALCONSULT, a group of Italian public engineers. The highway is in line with the aims of the Organisation of African Unity and the Africa Highway Association, both of which are promoting increased communications between African states. The highway is important to both Kenya and Ethiopia -- opening up territories hitherto unchanged for thousands of years, and creating new trade and employment opportunities.

When the highway is completed, the eleven-day nightmare journey over rough terrain -- where the camel and donkey have been traditional means of transport for more than five-thousand years -- will take only forty-eight hours of comfortable travel by motor-car.