Improving Transnational Transport Corridors
In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases
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equipment during construction, and regulations on vehicle fitness and use of over-age vehicles.
Internationally acceptable limits will have to be adopted and monitored for impact.
While Transport Corridor development by its very nature aims to increase transport demand,
there remains an increasing body of opinion that aims to reduce it. The economic philosophy
emanated from environmental concerns especially due to global warming. The economic
thinking is that transport demand and economic growth should be decoupled, so that growth
and development should not automatically mean more transport demand. Processes that
replace transport demand with communications are well accepted. In the case of long distance
freight traffic, the containment and management of external costs is advocated. However, in
most developing countries this has hardly advanced and as may be expected, the policy for the
Northern Corridor Development appears silent on the issue. However, road pricing and user
charging is most certainly an issue and at some point, in the future, road transporters may be
expected to pay the full costs of road usage.
Sustainability is an issue for most transport systems in Africa and indeed elsewhere. Roads
are generally underfunded and maintenance management is an issue while railways and
airways are considered commercial entities so can be judged to be loss making. Convergence
on the principles of funding transport is needed before progress can be made on a providing
common way forward to generate the revenue needed to that will ensure the sustainability of
transport systems. Most countries generate revenue from fuel levies that are ring fenced and
administered by a road authority, the levies vary from one country to another. Kenya will also
be the first to introduce tolling on its newest sections of highway. There are also a variety of
other taxes and charges that apply to road users that cover a wider range of services, some of
which are hidden costs. South Sudan for example has a wider range of such charges that are
aimed to enhance its revenue stream such as gate passes, road blocks and document checking
77. Each country also has its own transit tariffs and permit regulations. More desirable for
trade and economic development is for there to be a common set of charges that are
predictable and rationale.
4.6.9. Corridor Performance Monitoring
The NCTTCA has good website that includes GIS based monitoring data. The Corridor
Authority issued its 10th annual monitoring report in May 2017 78 . Monitoring data includes
the following:
 Cargo throughput
 Volume per country of destination
 Rate of containerization
 Transport capacity by rail
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78 NORTHERN CORRIDOR TRANSIT AND TRANSPORT COORDINATION AUTHORITY THE TRANSPORT
OBSERVATORY REPORT 10TH ISSUE May 2017