Dar rapid buses for one-week trial soon

 

FAST buses under the Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (DART) project will soon start a one-week trial to allow drivers to get accustomed to the city’s roads and traffic lights, the Prime Minister, Mr Kassim Majaliwa, has said.

Mr Majaliwa made the remarks when he made an impromptu tour of the Ferry international Fish Market in the city to inspect the gas cookers being used there and the wall separating the market and the DART project.

“About 30 to 50 buses will be used for the trials in all the roads under the project. The exercise is to allow other road users, such as bodaboda riders, other vehicles and daladala to understand that the DART roads are meant for these buses alone and get used to this arrangement,” he explained.

The prime minister was responding to a question from a businessman, Mr Sharifu Ramadhani, who noted that he was spending a lot of money for transport because many of the available buses end up at Mnazi Mmoja.

“We are forced to spend more money on transport because commuter buses do not go to Ferry. Those who cannot spend more are forced to walk from Mnazi Mmoja to Ferry while others are forced to hire taxis,” he complained.

“They are now fixing ticketing machines, where passengers will use smart cards that look like ATM cards, which will be loaded with money and once inserted into the machine it will deduct the amount of bus fare required for the destination,” Mr Majaliwa said in response, also explaining the progress in the project’s implementation.

The premier assured the public and business people who buy fish at the market that their transport woes will be history once DART is fully operational.

Meanwhile, Mr Majaliwa has directed the Ferry International Fish Market board to meet with different gas companies to get better prices and reduce costs for frying fish for sale at the market.

Premier Majaliwa also directed the Fish Market’s Manager, Mr Solomon Mushi, to ensure availability of measuring gadgets to ensure correct measurement of gas cylinders.

Mr Majaliwa issued the directive following complaints from business people who said they are forced to buy gas cylinders at exorbitant prices while prices keep on going up.

Speaking on behalf of the business people, Mr Ally Iddi said they used to buy the 32kg gas cylinders at 70,000/- but now the same is sold at 98,000/- “I have done a small research in retail shops and found out that the same 32kg goes for 75,000/- he pointed out.