Kenya retreats on rapid bus transit plan

Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit buses are providing transport for the city’s five million people. PHOTO | EMMANUEL HERMAN  

By James Anyanzwa

In Summary

• Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said Friday that the implementation of the proposed special bus transport system has proved difficult due to lack of provisions in the existing road infrastructure to cater for special lanes to be used by the new buses.
• “You know in the mass rapid transit system (MRTS) there are two components: the commuter rail and the bus. The bus will be very difficult because we don’t have the lanes for the buses. What will come is the commuter rail because it will use the existing meter gauge rail," he said.
• Construction of the bus rapid transit system was expected to start next year, being the initial phase of the World Bank-funded MRTS project.

Kenya has made a hasty retreat over plans to decongest the city of Nairobi’s infamous traffic jams through a bus rapid transit system barely three weeks after Tanzania launched its Dar es Salaam Bus Rapid Transit (Dart).

Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said Friday that the implementation of the proposed special bus transport system has proved difficult due to lack of provisions in the existing road infrastructure to cater for special lanes to be used by the new buses.

“You know in the mass rapid transit system (MRTS) there are two components: the commuter rail and the bus. The bus will be very difficult because we don’t have the lanes for the buses. What will come is the commuter rail because it will use the existing meter gauge rail.

“We have already received proposals from France, United Kingdom, Turkey, Hungary and China who want to operate the rail system. There is a lot of interest in the rail system,” Macharia told reporters in Nairobi.

The construction of a rapid bus transit system was part of Kenya’s proposed mass rapid transport systems (MRTS) meant to reduce traffic congestion in Nairobi and other major cities and to improve the country’s regional competitiveness.

READ: Nairobi plans $4m expansion of urban transport network

It is estimated that traffic congestion in Nairobi city costs the economy $360 million annually.

Nairobi’s population has increased to 3.3 million from 350,000 in 1963 with the number of vehicles estimated at  300,000 without an equivalent increase in the road network.

Construction of the bus rapid transit system was expected to start next year, being the initial phase of the World Bank-funded MRTS project.

The MRTS is part of the National Urban Transport Improvement Project (NUTRIP) to help expand the capacity of Uhuru Highway and to initiate rapid bus transit and commuter rail systems.  

World Bank committed to invest $300 million in the project in 2012, in addition to $113 million from the Kenyan government.

READ: World Bank approves $300 million for Kenya’s transport upgrade

The project entailed the building and operation of new rapid bus and rail transport systems to increase the volume and speed of passenger and freight services around the country’s urban areas.  

Others included expansion and upgrading of highways, service, and access roads from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport through Nairobi to Rironi on the Northern Corridor transport system, and construction of by-passes in Kisumu in Western Kenya and Meru in the East.

The bus rapid transit system (BRT) was initially expected to have 600 buses using five interconnected lines to ferry commuters to all the key city suburbs.