Transport CS James Macharia has halved the South Africa’s order for BRT buses. In the place, he says the ministry will buy the other half from local manufacturers.
Earlier, the Transport Ministry had said that Kenya does not have the capacity to make the Bus Rapid Buses which made Macharia to turn to South Africa.
The earlier move to get all the buses from S.Africa was met with harsh criticism by the local automotive companies seeing that they had already invested eyeing the BRT deal.
Kenya had ordered a total of 64 buses for the BRT which would be dispatched at designated routes within the city. The orders were running to Sh 1.6 billion. Johannesburg has not yet commented non the issue.
“We are set to acquire only 32 BRT buses from South Africa. The rest of the buses will be sourced from local manufacturers across the country,” Transport secretary James Macharia said last week “ We will provide you with details about financing at a later date.”
The buses are expected to reduce traffic jams by substantial extent owing to it that each of them will have a capacity of at least 160 passengers. The passengers will be using cards for payment.
Dar es Salaam is the first city in East Africa to do BRTs and Kenya is implementing its BRT with notes borrowed from Tanzania.