Although virtual connectivity has become increasingly important today with the emergence of new communication avenues, a good and reliable transport network remains vital.
There is a very strong positive correlation between a country's economic development and the quality of its road network.
The commencing operations of the Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (DART) are a major relief to the residents of the city of Dar es Salaam who had been spending almost six hours to and from work.
The Government in collaboration of the World Bank decided to implement a BRT system with a view to addressing the growing problems of traffic congestion, and worsening air pollution.
Other problems were increasing passenger demand caused by rapid population growth amidst the limited road infrastructure and poor public transport service provided by the large number of poorly maintained small private operated buses.
Speaking on Saturday when of the Ministerial Advisory Board (MAB) of the Dar Rapid Transit Agency, visited the all Dart terminals to see how they are operating, the Board Chairperson Professor David Mfinanga said “The services are good, we thank the government for this major step,” he appreciated.
Prof. Mfinanga said that there were some challenges of which they will keep on improving them as time goes on.
Some of the challenges that the board advised the Dart management to sort out are like the long queuing of passengers when buying tickets due to limited spaces.
The board members told the Dart management to find ways how they can extend their space either by breaking some unnecessary walls to get spaces where they can install some machines that would easy the movements of passengers.
For his part, DART’s Ag Chief Executive, Engineer Ronald Rwakatare said that the beginning of any project should have some challenges. “We are working tirelessly to identify the problems facing this project and sort them out,” he promised.
Eng. Rwakatare mentioned some of the challenges as the leakage of pipes water to almost all toilets at bus terminals and depots. “We have already reported the matter to the contractor consultancy and he is working to repair or replace them,” he noted.
When asked the plans they had to ensure UDA-RT buses are not delayed at traffic lights, he said that they were working collaboratively with the police to ensure the smooth movements of their buses.
Other challenges are the interfering of some private cars, pedestrians and motorcycles in their lanes, and causing some accidents.
According to Eng. Rwakatare, during the interim services there are currently 145 buses, with the capacity of carrying between 80 and 160 passengers in a single trip.
They expect to introduce more BRT buses to reach 303 buses in the long run.
He also revealed that the DART Project phase two that will be constructed along Kilwa Road to Mbagala will commence next year as the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) have accepted to fund the project.
Rwakatare said in order to address the problem of congestion they are now working hard to introducing electronic ticketing at any time this month.
He further noted in order to arrest the problem of congestion caused when passengers boarding or disembarking the buses, they are planning to put doors for boarding only, and the ones for disembarking only.
Meanwhile, DART’s Director of operations and infrastructure management Eng. Shauri John Shau told this paper that DART project was of its kind in Africa.
He said that countries of similar projects in Africa can be found in Nigeria and South Africa.
“However, unlike that one of Nigeria, thi is an exceptional one, because it is a full fledged BRT,” he boasted.
The exceptionality of a full fledged BRT project according to Eng. Shau includes: Its capacity buses; dedicated lanes (exclusive) for BRT buses; non mortilised lane; centrally locate lanes, among others.
The DART Project is designed to be implemented in six phases with Phase I (currently being implemented) overing 20.9 kms along Morogoro roads from Kimara to Kivukoni; section of Kawawa road from Morocco to Magomeni Mapipa and Msimbazi road up to Kariakoo Gerezani.
The BRTsystem has many advantages as compared to the present public transport system. The major ones are such as: It provides faster services with substantial time savings, it is considered as a relatively cheaper means of mass transportation, and it is reliable and comfortable (in terms of scheduled trips and size and type of buses deployed).
It also is a passenger commuter service that gives priority to commuter transport needs for faster convergence and at affordable fares.
Furthermore, it is environmentally friendly because of less vehicle emissions and noise; it enhances non motorised transport; it is safer especially when Modal Integration is taken into account.
It is efficient and fast because of less congestion, segregation of lanes for BRT vehicles, fast boarding and disembarkation, and centrally controlled routing system through computer network.
It is economical as: It offers a fair return on investment; it allows building of public private partnerships; there will be less cost for customers and the government in general; it creates employment opportunities (including drivers, ticket vendors and central control unit.)
The system can cope with fast growing demand for commuter services; it is very flexible and adaptable (in comparison to commuter rail services).
Other findings show that on 24 April 2015 the Dar Rapid Transit Agency (DART) signed a contract with UDA-RT for the provision of Interim services of the Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit system.
UDA-RT is a special purpose company formed by UDA and the two Daladala Associations Dar es Salaam Commuter Bus Owners Association (DARCOBOA) and UWADAR for the provision of interim services.
The history of urban public transport in the city of Dar es Salaam dates back to 1949 when a privately owned company named Dar es Salaam Motor Transport Company (DMT) started providing passenger transport services in the then Tanganyika (now Tanzania Mainland).
The DMT continued to operate until April 1970 when it was nationalised and operated under the management of the National Transport Corporation (NTC) was succeeded by “Shirika la Usafiri Dar es Salaam (UDA)” in 1974.
UDA had been experiencing problems ranging from poor financial and human resources, unserviceable vehicles and poor state of the city’s road infrastructure.
Inability of the government to provide the required subsidy to match the financing deficit caused by very low fixed bus fares greatly undermined UDA’s performance.
Coupled with poor managerial performance, the company continued to deteriorate gradually, reaching a low of a mere 4 operating vehicles at the time of its recent privatisation in 2009.
The continuing dismal performance of UDA amidst growing demand for travel within the City encouraged private bus operators to initially come in informally to fill in the demand gap.
Following the reforms in the urban transportation system, deregulation and trade liberalisation, some policy changes took place starting from 1991 and in 1997 gradually led to the dominance of private commuter buses commonly known as ‘daladalas’ as the major provider of public transport service in the city.
The City of Dar es Salaam founded in 1872 under Oman Arab rule has been experiencing rapid urbanization which excalated to an annual growth of 5.6 percent in recent years (2002-2012), with current population estimated at 4.5 million up from a mere 782,000 in 1978.
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