Tanzania secures Sh650 billion funding for BRT expansion

Dar es Salaam. The Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit Agency (Dart) is next year expected to engage contractors to undertake work on the fourth and fifth phases of the city’s bus rapid transit (BRT) network.

This comes after the government secured about Sh650 billion in financing from development partners.

Dart chief executive Edwin Mhede told The Citizen that the World Bank had extended $97.7 million (Sh219 billion) for implementation of the fourth phase between Tegeta through Bagamoyo and Ali Hassan Mwinyi roads and Bibi Titi Road in the city centre.

The government has also secured 178 million euros (Sh427 billion) from the French Development Agency (AFD) for the construction of phase five, which will start at the Kijazi Interchange in Ubungo through Mandela Road. The route will also have a branch to Segerea.

Dar es Salaam BRT will be constructed in a total of six phases.

The first phase has been operational since 2016, while construction of the second phase has reached over 90 percent, with implementation of the third phase currently in progress.

Dr Mhede said the tender seeking to identify and engage contractors who would undertake the fourth and fifth phases had already been announced.

“Identification of residents who will be affected in the fourth phase has been finalised, and we are in the process of conducting a similar exercise for the fifth phase,” he said.

Dart transport planning manager Mohamed Kuganda said the two phases would be constructed simultaneously because funding had come from two different development partners.

Work on the 25.9-kilometre fourth phase will include the construction of a terminal at Kivukoni that will accommodate buses plying the Tegeta, Mbezi and Gongolamboto routes.

“A bus terminal or platform terminal is where a route starts and ends, so Kivukoni will be extended to accommodate terminal routes for the said phases. The construction of two bus terminals will be undertaken during the fourth phase,” Mr Kuganda said.

He added that the length of Bagamoyo Road is 25.9 kilometres, and another four kilometres would be added because a terminal would be constructed at Boko.

“At first, the terminal was to have been constructed at Tegeta Kibo, but we have changed the plan, and the terminal will now be built at Boko near the Dawasa (Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority) offices since this is an area with more people than Tegeta Kibo.”

Mr Kuganda said Dart would build a phase four depot at Mbuyuni near the Kunduchi junction, while a fifth phase depot would be constructed at Temeke Mwisho, adding that the agency was looking for other places to build more depots.

Dart expects that 889,000 people will commute daily on phase five routes by 2030, while 698,000 commuters will use phase four routes daily.

Mr Kuganda said a total of 590 buses would ply phase four routes upon their completion, with 240 of the vehicles being articulated or trunk buses, while the rest would be feeder buses.

The fifth phase will have 430 buses for both trunk and feeder services.

“The number of buses will increase significantly by 2030 because the number of commuters will also increase,” he said.