THE Regional Administration and Local Governments standing committee of the National Assembly has asked the government to ensure that operations of the city Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) second phase, from Gerezani to Mbagala, start within the next three months.

This appeal was given during the weekend soon after the MPs inspected BRT infrastructure for phase two and three, objecting to a proposal by the the Dar es Salaam Rapid Transport (DART) management which wants operations to commence next February, after the bus firm has procured buses.

The committee members said that residents have waited for years to have reliable transport, thus it is not fair to make them wait for nine months more while the required infrastructure is already in place.

Hawa Mwaifunga (Special Seats-Opposition) said that the government needs to find alternative ways “to ensure that we deploy buses to operate in the new lane as soon as possible while we wait for the new buses to come. We cannot leave our people in that situation of struggling for transport every day while they witness the lanes are all over,” she said.

She commenced the good job done for investing in quality transport infrastructure, affirming that what is now needed is to ensure that the infrastructure brings relief to people and produces positive outcomes in the nation’s economy.

Salome Makamba (Special Seats, Opposition), another committee member, urged the government to hire enough service providers in all BRT routes in order to facilitate the provision of smooth transport services.

“What people want is reliable transport. They have suffered for years with jams and other disturbances when the project was being implemented, and now it is completed,” she said, objecting to the idea that the city residents wait more for UDART to bring its buses to exclusively operate the bus service.

“No it can’t be like that. We need to find other buses and deploy them in the lanes for people to get services,” she emphasised, urging that the government works to ensure that people who were moved to pave the way for the implementation of the projects in all phases are paid their compensation.

This should be done on time for them to have profitable life pursuits elsewhere, she stressed.

Sebastian Kapufi (Mpanda) said that there is a great impact being witnessed as the country implements major transport projects like rapid bus lanes but there are no immediate gains noticed by the people.

“When our national leaders work hard to find funds to implement these good projects, it is important for us who assist them to ensure that the projects are completed on time and produce expected outcomes,” he stated.

Justin Nyamoga (Kilolo), the committee vice chairman, aired the view that it is important to ensure that implementation of the coming phases considers the challenges experienced in earlier phases in order to not repeat mistakes.

“We want to see that the coming phases, as soon as the phase is completed, the buses also arrive, so all the procedures should go together. It is not good to wait until the project is completed then we start searching for the service providers and procurement of buses, we can’t go like this,” he said.

Dr Athumani Kihamia, the DART CEO, thanked the committee and assured that all the recommendations issued will be seriously considered, meanwhile as the MPs directed their demands to the responsible ministry rather than to the parastatal’s management.

The CEO reiterated the sole provision of buses by DART, asserting that phase II of the project has reached 98.9 percent construction “and once operations commence, a total of 750 buses will operate, serving more than 600,000 people every day.” Buses for the project are set to arrive early next year and commence operation the following month, he reiterated.

The Mbagala link is tied with the central commercial hub at Gerezani where it connects with routes to Kimara and Kinondoni, and another BRT phase is scheduled to connect Gerezani to Tegeta and eventually to Bagamoyo.