SHENZHEN Metro became the first Chinese subway company to operate a light rail project in a foreign country, when Sub-Saharan Africa’s first modern tramway opened in the Ethiopian capital Sunday.

    Run by the Shenzhen company, the project in Addis Ababa was built by the China Railway Group, with two lines covering 34 kilometers.

    Even before the ribbon was cut, several hundred residents were queueing for a ride on the trams, which have the capacity to carry 60,000 passengers a day across the capital of Africa’s second-most populous nation.

    “I’m very excited and very proud as an Ethiopian. We have been waiting for this for a long time,” Dereje Daba, a local resident who had waited for two hours to become one of the first passengers on the new line, told AFP.

    Currently working in a cafe in the city center, he said the tram would cut his daily commute from one hour to just 20 minutes.

    Xiao Min, general manager of Shenzhen Metro, said the company has sent 182 employees to Addis Ababa to help train Ethiopian workers and would run the railway project for 41 months. Ethiopian management will operate and manage the rail after that.

    The tramway is designed to relieve the mounting strain on the city’s roads. The city’s public transport for the growing population of 5 million has consisted of old buses and a network of cramped minibuses, known as “blue donkeys.”

    Ticket prices have been set at US$0.30, a low price.

    The light rail has been hailed as a milestone in fast-growing but impoverished Ethiopia’s development, and part of a cluster of major infrastructure projects that include railway lines, motorways and dams.

    Ethiopia’s transport minister, Workneh Gebeyehu, said the tramway project will also boost Ethiopia’s bid to make the city — already the seat of the African Union — the undisputed continental hub.

    “This is a sign of modernity. This is a very modern train that will serve the capital city of Africa. We are very proud of that,” he told AFP. “The light rail is not for commercial purposes. Tickets are very cheap. It will serve the people with low income.”(Zhang Xiaoyi)