The cable car project in the Malagasy capital Antananarivo is far from done unanimity. Not only is it accused of disfiguring historical sites, but its use is also proving too costly for most of the population. Many are asking to put that money elsewhere.
The controversy also affects France, insofar as it assumes part of the financing. Two French companies are taking part in the project: Poma, a leading global specialist in wired transport, and Colas, which is already present on the controversial “colosseum” site, in the historic heart of the Malagasy capital.
A loan of 28 million euros from French treasury, another 88 million from Société Générale guaranteed by the Public Investment Bank (BPI), were granted. Except that the project has an initial cost of 152 million euros and that the Malagasy public authorities must find the rest. Or 36 million euros plus the probable excesses, while two out of three Malagasy people live on less than two dollars a day.
Moreover, the communist senator Pierre Laurent asked the abandonment of the project, and “dedicate the planned resources to a project more suited to the urgent needs of the Malagasy population”. We are of course thinking of the south of the island, which is faced with chronic famine.
There is an undeniable need to relieve congestion in the capital, which is a victim of congested traffic linked to the underdevelopment of public transport. According to defenders of the project, the cable car would make it possible to divide by three or four the travel time on the chosen route.
12 kilometers, twelve stations and two lines, the cable car according to its designers will transport 40,000 passengers per day for a ticket price of just over one euro. Overpriced for the majority of Malagasy people. The expected attendance is also to be compared with the 780,000 places provided by public transport (although saturated) and the 136,000 individual vehicles criss-crossing the capital every day at a speed of 3.5 km/h. For some opponentsit is only a question of making life easier for a few “privileged”.
Surroundings of ikopa river #Antananarivo #Flooding pic.twitter.com/aYaZkIMoaT
— Drones.mg (@DronesMg) January 23, 2022
A project that goes all the more badly as the capital has been devastated by catastrophic floods due to violent storms and a tropical storm in recent days (34 dead, 62,000 people affected). And the violent storms of the rainy season are accompanied by landslides which could also affect the future pylons of the cable car according to the opponents. Also the money could be better invested, for example in flood protection.
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