Madagascar’s president Andry Rajoelina on Friday took a ride on a new cable car that the government says will help reduce traffic in the capital, Antananarivo.
Re-elected for a third term last year in a vote boycotted by most opposition candidates, Rajoelina, 50, boarded the gondola lift with the prime minister and other government members for a maiden tour celebrated with great pomp.
“Antananarivo was built for 300,000 inhabitants. Now there are three million of us. This is going to reduce traffic jams and it’s also a non-polluting form of transport,” the head of state told AFP.
The inauguration came just days before Independence Day celebrations.
Only the first section of two planned lines has been finished and it might take months before it is fully operational.
Two French companies are currently in the running to be awarded the management of technical and commercial operations.
The project’s construction cost was 152 million euros ($162 million), a big expenditure in the impoverished nation.
More than half was financed by France’s public investment bank Bpifrance, with an additional 28-million-euro loan from the French Treasury.
The president said tickets will cost between 3,000 and 5,000 Malagasy ariary ($0.6 to $1.1) — a hefty sum that most locals will struggle to afford. A bus ride in comparison costs 500 ariary.
“I can assure you that it is within the reach of the middle class,” Rajoelina said unfazed.
“Myself, the members of my family and my colleagues will all be the first customers of our cable car. Not to mention company executives, students, pupils at the French school and tourists too,” he said.