The Tanzania government, through the Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit Agency (Dart), will sign an agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) firm to offer the service starting from the second week of September.
Dart chief executive Edwin Mhede told the citizen Tanzania yesterday that after completing all due procedures, the new service provider was expected to bring 95 buses to operate in the phase1 (one) project.
Currently, the Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (BRT) project phases1 has 210 buses.
This suggests that the coming of 95 buses will bring a total number to 305 buses that will be operating along Morogororo Road.
Dr Mhede said that the new service provider will be operating in the trunk routes as Udart operates in the feeder routes.
Dr Mhede stressed that the buses to be brought by the new operator will be modern. They will have an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) that will point to the location of a drive and identify dead routes and undead routes.
ITS is an advanced application which aims to provide innovative services relating to different modes of transport, such as traffic management, enabling users to be informed and make safer, more coordinated and smarter use of transport networks.
With the buses, daily passenger figures are expected to increase to between 400,000 and 500,000 from the current 180,000 and 200,000.
Explaining about the BRT phase2, he said the construction had reached 66 per cent and will be finalised in March next year. Once the construction of the phase2 is completed, some Udart buses will start operating the Kilwa route.
The second phase of the project is expected to benefit an estimated population of 1.2 million people, which represents 25 per cent of the Dar es Salaam Tanzania city population.
Other beneficiaries include users of the major city connecting Mandela and Nyerere roads.
Read also; Air Tanzania Eyes More Long-Haul Routes.
