Roads in Mount Lebanon,
Akkar to get uplifted

Part of a Ministry plan to rehabilitate

and develop 150 roads

The Ministry of Public Works and Transport is executing 27 roads, mainly in Mount Lebanon and Akkar after it received a budget allocation of $50 million, according to Tanios Boulos, Director of the General Directorate of Buildings and Roads at the Ministry.

The roads span 151 kilometers in total.

The development is part of a decision that was issued by the Council of Ministers in 2012, which approved the Ministry’s plan to rehabilitate and develop 150 roads. But the Ministry did not have enough funds to complete the project.

About 90 percent of the 27 roads have been awarded so far. The road with the biggest allocation is in Minieh, valued at $8 million. It includes an expansion of the road as well as the development of the part that reaches Bakhoun, stretching over seven kilometers.

There are 7,500 km of classified roads that need at least $265 million for maintenance on an annual basis.

Ibrahim Saliba, Director of the Projects Department at the Ministry, said: “The Ministry’s annual budget is around $100 million, part of it goes for the development of new roads and another for asphalting. There is a shortage in funds.”