AfricaPress-Tanzania: IN efforts to reduce transport woes and avoid congestion in Usafiri Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (UDART) buses, the government intends to purchase new buses to have a total of 305 of them, from the current 140 which are plying different part of the country’s commercial city of Dar es Salaam.
The Ministry of State, President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government (RALG) said in the National Assembly yesterday that similarly, UDART was currently finalising an electronic system for collection of bus fares in an attempt to reduce congestion at different stations.
Following the new system, the ministry said, passengers would be receiving timely information on different routes of UDART buses in the city, thus make proper planning before commuting.
The government was responding to the main question by Special Seats lawmaker, Aysharose Mattembe, who said that the decision by the government to come up with rapid transit aimed at reducing disturbances to commuters in Dar es Salaam.
“Instead, this transport system has become a menace to Dar es Salaam residents, including overcrowding in buses,” stated Ms Mattembe, adding: “What plans are in place to prevent overcrowding in busses as well as introducing proper measures to avoid disturbances?’’
The MP said that right now, there was poor control on the number of people boarding Usafiri Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (UDART) buses, saying that other commuter buses across the country did not carry passengers according to their seat capacities.
