Said Amour Arfi

The Opposition has said that demolition of houses in various parts of the country has caused great anxiety to the affected people, calling upon the government to conduct proper valuation before pulling them down.

Tabling the Opposition views on the Works ministry’s budget estimates for financial year 2012/2013 on behalf of Shadow Minister Said Amour Arfi, Special Seats MP Paul Gekul said some of the victims were people who have been living in the areas before the law was passed in 2007 and had valid title deeds.

“Most of last year there was widespread marking of Xs on houses to be demolished. This is not fair. We suggest that the assessment of houses and properties be made before demolition is carried out,” Gekul said.

Meanwhile, Works minister Dr John Magufuli has threatened to sack Tanzania Roads Agency (Tanroads) regional managers who will fail to supervise the eviction of people from road reserves.

The minister said this when tabling his budget estimates for the financial year 2012/2013, calling on people who have built their houses on road reserves to demolish them without compensation.

“It is against the Roads Act number 13 of 2007, especially article 29 (1) which directs on the use of the road reserve and other laws which concern the preservation of roads,” he said.

The minister said only those who will be followed by the road and not who had built on the reserve will be compensated in accordance with the laws.

He hit at politicians, in particular members of parliament, who passed the law but were supporting the people in breaking it.

“You are the same people who are now supporting the people in breaking the same laws you made. Let us work together to ensure that this sector yields envisaged dividends,” he said.

In his budget speech, the minister said his ministry would continue to implement projects meant to reduce Dar traffic congestion amounting to 899.063bn/-.

Dr Magufuli, who asked the House to approve a total of 1,023bn/-, 329.085bn/- as recurrent expenditure and 693.94bn/- for development projects, said the ministry has also allocated funds for the construction of ring roads for Dar es Salaam Region amounting to 10.577bn/-.

“The purpose of this project is to build and expand Dar es Salaam roads with a view to reducing traffic congestion,” he said.

Another project which will help to reduce traffic congestion is the construction of flyovers in Dar es Salaam and intersection roads for which the ministry has allocated 2bn/-, he said.

Dr Magufuli said the aim of the project is to build a flyover at Tazara and intersection roads for the purpose of reducing traffic congestion at the junction of Mandela and Nyerere roads.

“We have set a budget of 2.788bn/- for the construction of the bridge to connect the city of Dar es Salaam and Kigamboni satellite town. These are internal funds. We shall build the bridge in collaboration with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF),” said the minister.

The parliamentary committee for Infrastructure said traffic congestion in Dar es Salaam was a nuisance, making the country waste four 4bn/- every day (1.44 trn/- a year) in lost man-hours.

Reading the committee's report, deputy chairperson Anne Kilango Malecela advised the government to solve the problem of congestion by building feeder roads, flyovers, introducing boat travel from Bagamoyo to Ferry and introduction of commuter trains in Dar es Salaam.

“We are aware that these projects are in the pipeline. They should be implemented during this financial year,” said Kilango.