Burkina Fasoisimplementing aplantoupgrade andimprove thesetransit routes. I •••A/44/588 Englhh Page12 20.TheCentral African Republic ha.twomaintransit corridorll Banqui-Congo to Pointe-Noire, byrivertoBrallaville andthenbytheCongo-Ocean railway from Brazzaville tnPointe-Noire. Themaincharacteristic ofthisrouteisthatriver trafficisinterrupted yearlyforatleastthreemonthsbetween rebruary and April. Theothercorridor istheBangui-Cameroon toDouala, withanalternative on theCameroon lector, eitherroadorroad/rail withtrans-shipment. TheCentral African Repu·'chasalsoarehabilitation plantoeffectimprovement ofthe transit corridor system. Chad h~sthreepOllible corridors vi•.neighbouring countries toocean po~ts, viaCameroon toDouala, viaNigeria toLagolandvia tt~ Central African Republic andCongotoPcinte-Noire. Thethreecorridors have commoncharacteristics inthatnearlytheentirerouteisinthetransit country or countrie.. Thus,Chadisdependent on~tlneighbours' infraltructurel and equipment. Thetrans-equatorial corrido. byroadtoBangui, thenbyriverto Bralzaville andfinally byrailtoPointe-Noire islittleusedinviewofthe distance andofthenumberoftrans-shipments. TheCameroonian andNigerian corridors havelarge-capacity andwell-equipped ports,excellent road infrastructures inNigeria andthesehavebeenreasonably improved inCameroon. However, theroutethrough Nigeria isverylittleusedfortransit largely because thereisnotransit agreement between thetwocountries toregulate thetransit operations alonqthecorridor. Cameroon offersmanyfacUlties andasar8Rult mostChadian transit-transport isviaDouala. Thisroute,however, necessitates trans-shipment, astrllnsport isbyrailway between DouaIaandNgaoundere andthen byroadbetween Ngaoundere andNdjam4na. Measure. toimprove theefficiency of thisroutewillinclude theincrease oftherailway rolling stockandexpansioJ. of Chad'sroadhaulage capacity. 2.Malihasaccesstotheseabytwomainroutesl viaSenegal byrailway linking BamdkototheportofDakarandviatheCoted'Ivoire byroad bet~~~n Bamakoand Abidjan.Although landdistance byeitherrouteisroughly thesame,transport costperton/kilometre areaboutonethirdhigherthrough Abidjan thanthrough Datar,asroadtransport ismoreexpensive perton/kilometre thanrail.The alternative routesviaConakry, LomeandCotonou needconsiderable improvements to beviablecompetitive routes. Therehabilitation plansunderimplementation are mainlyfocused onimproving theoperations onthetwomainoutlets. FromNiger, theseacanbereached byfourmainroutes. TherouteviaBenin-Cotonou isof overriding importance asitcarries morethan70percentofoverseas traffic. The routeNiger-Lome -viaBurkina FasotoNiamey-Lome islargely abituminous road. Itcarries aboutonefourthofNigerls overseas traffic. TherouteNlger-Lagos includes twoaccesslinks, linder-Kano byroadorMakadi-Kano byroadandthen Kano-Lagos byrail.TherouteNiger-Algeria (thetrans-Sahara route), with 2,900kilometres between AgadesandAlgiers, isalsoapotential outlet. Several projects areunderwaytorehabilitate mainlythetransit routesinuse. 22.Although thereareseveralbilateral arrangements between theland-lockeu countries andtheirtransit neighbours inthe.ubregion, manyofthe.eare poo~:ty implemented. Asaresultmanyday-to-day procedurel related tointer-modal cross-border operations, inclUding CUltoms procedure., areslowandcumbersome. Thisiscompounded bytrans-shipment requirements alonglomeofthetran4it corridors, whichgiverisetoexorbitant overalltransit COltS. Several ofthe land-locked countries inthesubregion alsohaveanumberofalternatives, the I•••A/44/588 English Page13 availability oftheseoptions is,however, littleexploited because thelimited rSBourceB arelarge)~' channelled totherehabilitation otroutescurrently inuse, whicharegenerally invelYpoorcondition. E.Aili 23.The la~d-locked developing countries inAsiaareAfghanistan, Bhutan, theLao People's Democratic Republic, Mongolia andNepal. TheLaoPeople's Democratic Republic tw~available transit corridors fortransit goodsarethrough Thailand and theportofBangkok. Sincethesigning ofthe1978TreatyofTransit with