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Mauritius Transportation and Communications
The island's network of surfaced roads covered 1,880
kilometers in 1992. In that same year, approximately
150,000
vehicles were registered. Port Louis and other urban
centers have
heavy traffic congestion. Railroads have been abandoned,
but an
extensive bus network exists, and the government is
considering
the construction of a monorail network. Port Louis, the
sole
commercial port, is large and was recently modernized. In
1992 it
handled some 3.5 million tons of cargo, about 70 percent
of which
was in containers. The government's Sir Seewoosagur
Ramgoolam
International Airport at Plaisance is modern, having
undergone an
expansion costing MauR450 million in the early 1990s. In
1992 it
handled 950,000 passengers, half of whom were carried by
the
national carrier, Air Mauritius. In the same year, 34,000
tons of
freight passed through the airport, and the average number
of
daily arriving and departing flights was twenty-nine. Air
Mauritius plans to expand its fleet of three Boeing 727s
by
adding three Airbus A340-300s, expected for delivery in
April
1994.
Communications facilities in Mauritius are well
developed,
including modern postal, facsimile, and telex services. In
1992
the telephone network had a capacity of 100,000 lines.
International direct dialing was instituted in 1987. Also
serving
the country are two radio stations, four television
stations, and
one International Telecommunications Satellite Corporation
earth
station.
Data as of August 1994
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