Tunis — The Equipment Ministry is to issue, before the end of the current month, an international tender for the construction of a highway linking the cities of Gabès, Medenine and Ras Jedir.

This highway will cover a 180-kilometre distance, with an additional 19 Km at the National Road N°1 level, said on Wednesday Mr. Lotfi Chatti, executive in charge of communication at the Equipment Ministry, adding that the project is worth one million dinars (MTD), 550 MTD allocated to the Gabes-Medenine highway and 450 MTD to the Medenine-Ras Jedir's.

During the 3-year construction stage and start, works are expected to generate 2,000 jobs.

The project is comprises 6 feeders at the level of West and South Gabès, Djerba, Zarzis, Enfeytiya and Ben Guerdane, in addition to 70 bridges, 172 hydraulic structure on wadis and 3 resting and facilities areas on both ways.

The project, to be completed by 2017, will be carried out on nine terms, in order to allow the largest number of Tunisian public works companies to participate in the infrastructure works as soon as possible.

The Gabès-Ras Jedir part of the highway is financed by the Tunisian State, jointly with the Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA), and the African Development Bank (AfDB) funded the Gabès-Medenine part.

It is worth reminding that the works of the western highway, Oued Zarga-Bousalem, have started last May 25, on a 70-km distance, by means of 430 MTD of investments.

The 155-km southern highway, Sfax-Gabès, worth 817 MTD is under construction.