Thousands of Italians, Sicilians, and other people from the Italian empire began to settle in Mogadishu and founded small manufacturing companies across Somalia. They also developed some agricultural areas in the south near the capital, such as Janale and the ''Villaggio duca degli Abruzzi'' (present-day Jowhar). In the 1930s, new buildings and avenues were built. A  narrow-gauge railway was laid from Mogadishu to Jowhar. An asphalted road, the ''Strada Imperiale'', was also constructed and intended to link Mogadishu to Addis Ababa.