Transport in East Timor

In East Timor, transportation is reduced due to the nation's poverty, poor transportation infrastructure.

There are no railways in the country. The general condition of the roads is inadequate. The country has six airports, one of which has commercial and international flights.

Railways

East Timor has no railways. However, a master plan for a 500 km (310 mi) long electrified double-track railway was proposed in 2012, with a central line from Bobonaro to Lospalos, a western corridor from Dili to Betano and an eastern corridor from Baucau to Uatolari.^[1]^[2]

Roadways

Overview

East Timor has a road network of 6,041 km (3,754 mi), of which about 2,600 km (1,600 mi) of roads are paved, and about 3,440 km (2,140 mi) are unpaved.

The road network is made up of national roads linking municipal capitals (~1,500 km (930 mi)), municipal roads linking municipal capitals to towns and villages (~870 km (540 mi)), urban roads within urban areas (~717 km (446 mi)) and rural roads within rural areas (~3,112 km (1,934 mi)).^[3] In a 2015 survey reported by the World Bank, 57% of the rural roads were rated either bad or poor.

While under Portuguese rule, East Timor's road system, like the road network in all Portuguese colonies, adhered to right-hand drive. After the Indonesian takeover in 1975, the roads were made to switch to left-hand drive (like virtually all of present-day Indonesia). Upon independence in 2002 the left-hand traffic rule was retained.

National roads

East Timor has 20 arterial roads, designated as A-class roads (national roads), as follows:^[4]

No	From	To	Length (km)	Length (mi)
A01	Dili	Com, Lautém	203.9	126.7
A02^<1	Dili	Suai	176.4	109.6
A03	Dili	Mota Ain	118.2	73.4
A03'	Batugade	Maliana	42.4	26.3
A04	Tibar [de]	Ermera	46.8	29.1
A05	Aitotu [de]	Betano	55.6	34.5
A06	Baucau	Viqueque	64.9	40.3
A07	Viqueque	Natarbora [de]	46.0	28.6
A08	Lautém	Viqueque	121.7	75.6
A09	Manatuto	Natarbora [de]	79.5	49.4
A10	Ermera	Hauba [de]	66.9	41.6
A11	Maliana	Ermera	64.7	40.2
A12	Zumalai	Maliana	52.5	32.6
A13	Cassa	Aiassa [de]	25.1	15.6
A14	Betano	Natarbora [de]	47.7	29.6
A15	Suai	Uemassa	27.5	17.1
A16	Uele'o	Tilomar [de]	33.4	20.8
A17	Pante Macassar	Oesilo	25.3	15.7
A18	Pante Macassar	Citrana	44.9	27.9
A19	Pante Macassar	Sacato	14.8	9.2
Total			1,358.2	843.9

In October 2016, the East Timorese government symbolically launched a rehabilitation project for the Dili–Manatuto–Baucau national road. Construction was to be undertaken in two sections, Dili–Manatuto, and Manatuto–Baucau, in each case by a Chinese construction company. The project was financed by the General State Budget, and also from a loan fund from the Japanese government, through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It was due to be completed in mid-2019,^[2] and the completed road was officially inaugurated on 26 August 2022.^[5]

According to a road network connectivity quality assessment published in September 2019, the national road network already satisfactorily connected all national activity centres for all types of vehicles in circulation. However, some of the road segments needed to be improved, in terms of road width, drainage, geometric design and traffic facilities.^[6]

Bridges

Bridges in Dili

Two road bridges over the Comoro River link central Dili with the west side of the city, including the Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport and the Tibar Bay port, which as at early 2022 was due to start operations later that year. The more important of these two bridges is the CPLP Bridge; its alternative, approximately 800 m (2,600 ft) to its south, is the Hinode Bridge.^[7]

At the north eastern corner of central Dili, the B. J. Habibie Bridge spans the Claran River [de], and connects central Dili with the eastern waterfront of the Bay of Dili.^[8]

Noefefan Bridge

This bridge, also known as the Tono Bridge, was inaugurated in 2017 as part of the ZEESM TL project in Oecusse.

Ports and harbors

Port of Dili – for passenger ships and cruise ships carrying international passengers^[9]
Tibar Bay Port – for import and export goods; opened on 30 September 2022^[9]^[10]

Merchant marine

Total

1

Ships by type

passenger/cargo 1 (2010)

Routes

In July 2022, the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, urged the government of East Timor to open a shipping route between Kupang, Dili, and Darwin, to boost sea lane connectivity.^[11]

Airports

As of 2019^[update], East Timor had eight airports. The three major ones were the Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport in Dili, the Cakung or Baucau Airport in Baucau, and the Suai Airport in Suai. Only the first two of these were designed as international airports.^[12]

The Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport in Dili is the main international airport. Commercial scheduled service is also provided at Suai Airport and Oecusse Airport.^[13] Local airports include Baucau Airport and Viqueque Airport.

No airport in East Timor is officially available for night operations, but the government permits such operations in emergencies.^[12]