How Dar’s rapid transport will transform economy, mobility

Dar es Salaam. Implementation of Phase II of the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) and the Dar es Salaam Metropolitan Development Project (DMDP) is expected to open-up economic opportunities of sprawls areas in the city.

Presenting study findings on DMDP on Wednesday, October 11, Mr James Rayner, who led a team of experts from the World Bank to investigate means of improving Dar es Salaam Rapid Transport said the study has found economic potentials in the areas but were locked up by challenges related to poor urban planning.

“Land use review across the project line will turn the Dar es Salaam outskirts covered with the BRT projects will potentially be viable for economic investments,” he said.

He said currently, city residents were flocking to the City Centre during the morning and return to their places in the evening due to concentration of most key public offices and business activities at the Central Business District.

According to him, once BRT and DMDP projects are completed, public offices and business centres would be built in the respective areas, something that will restrict residents from flocking to city centers.

“That’s what has happened at Ubungo. The project has transformed economic potential of the area after commencement of the BRT and building the Mlimani City Mall,” he said.

Mr Rayner said implementation of the DMDP aimed at improving Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (Dart) services by ensuring squatters at project areas are developed to healthier residential buildings and floods mitigation strategies are put in place.

“The DMDP will improve community engagement in many issues including cleanliness and waste collection, because lessons leant from New Delhi and Cape Town shows that they paid high price for neglecting community engagement,” he said.

DMDP assistant coordinator Emmanuel Ndyamukama said the project intended at constructing 210 kilometres of feeder roads to reduce distances BRT commuters walked before reaching BRT terminals.

“The project has identified flood prone areas and that the project will build 21 kilometres of trenches for floods mitigation measures which is currently at different levels of production. Also, 14 Wards have been earmarked improvement during the DMDP,” he said, naming respective wards as Tandale, Mwananyamala, Mburahati, Ukonga and Mbagala.

The BRT phase II project is expected to start this year. The $160 million project will link the Dar es Salaam’s Central Business District with Mbagala.

The African Development Bank has released $141 million and the government will cover the remaining part of the expenses.