KISUMU, Kenya, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Watching heavy trucks laden with sugarcane smoothly cruising along a newly asphalted road toward a distant factory, 43-year-old farmer Rosslyn Akini Abudo cannot hide her satisfaction.
"Before, there was no road. Transporting sugarcane through the muddy fields using donkeys and tractors was pure torture," she told Xinhua.
Located in Kisumu County, a key economic and transport hub in western Kenya, the area is well known for sugarcane cultivation and sugar production. A road project undertaken by Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) is now bringing visible change to the region.
The project involves the construction of a 40-kilometer asphalt road cutting through the county's main sugarcane-growing areas, linking plantations with local sugar factories and injecting fresh impetus into local economic and social development.
Abudo said that she owns two acres of sugarcane, and "selling the entire harvest can earn me 100,000 shillings (about 773 U.S. dollars)."
According to Li Yingtao, PowerChina's project manager in Kisumu, the road forms part of the second section of the Kisumu-Muhoroni highway project.
Locals have nicknamed it the "Sugar Road," Li said, noting that it runs through the region's major sugarcane belt and serves as an important transport corridor for western Kenya.
Currently, about 35 percent of the project has been completed, and all contract work is expected to be finished within about 18 months. Once completed, the road will link Kenya's sugar belt and connect with the highway leading to the Uganda border, significantly improving regional connectivity.
Noting that the company attaches great importance to localization, Li said that surveyors, designers, drivers and equipment operators on site are all locally hired, and the construction process has directly created over 200 jobs, bringing tangible benefits to local farmers.
"We are training and extensively employing local staff. Upon completion, the project will leave behind road construction skills and trained personnel," said the manager.
To date, PowerChina has built 31 rural roads in Kenya, totaling over 1,580 kilometers. Adhering to localized management, these road projects have generated substantial local employment and trained numerous technical workers.
David Maganda, the Kenyan government's supervising engineer for the project, has been conducting regular site inspections since construction began.
The engineer, who has cooperated with PowerChina for many years, praised the company's previous work in the region. "The previous projects were excellent, becoming landmarks and benchmark projects in Kisumu," Maganda said. ■