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O País
The Chinese ambassador to Mozambique, Su Jian, on Thursday delivered a shipment of 80 buses, offered by the Chinese government, to Transport Minister Carlos Mesquita.
The offer results from an exchange of notes in Macau, in October 2016, at the request of the Mozambican government, under the economic and technical cooperation agreements between the two countries, signed on 26 February 2015 and 4 May 2016.
The buses are intended to improve passenger transport in the country’s urban areas, particularly in Maputo and the neighbouring city of Matola.
At the ceremony, Mesquita said the delivery of the buses illustrates the good relations between the Mozambican and Chinese governments, and will make a major contribution to mitigating the dramatic shortage of urban passenger transport.
The Chinese grant, he added, goes alongside the government’s efforts to improve passenger transport. These include the final phase of acquiring a further 300 buses, the leasing of routes to private operators, the creation of ticket offices and restructuring the public municipal bus companies.
Given the complexities of route licensing, the government set up earlier this month the Maputo Metropolitan Transport Agency, intended to promote a transport system resting on integrated and coordinated planning in Maputo and Matola, and the adjacent districts of Boane and Marracuene.
Mesquita said the government is paying special attention to technical assistance and maintenance. Strengthening the fleet of buses, he stressed, must be accompanied by rigorous and professional maintenance and repair services, to ensure that the useful life of the buses is not cut short.
The government, he said, is reorganising workshop management, by merging the maintenance services of the Maputo and Matola municipal bus companies.
Ambassador Su said that China has not only offered the buses but has financed the building of a new maintenance centre in Matola
A pilot experience with 50 buses, acquired in 2015, had gone smoothly, Mesquita said, and 20 months later all the buses were still operating and were in good condition.
The Minister added that the government believes transport problems cannot be solved only through government initiatives, and the intervention of the private sector is also necessary.
The main private project under way is “Metrobus”, under which second hand rail cars, acquired from New Zealand, will ferry passengers to Maputo Central rail station, from which a fleet of 90 buses will take them to their final destinations within the city. The railcars are owned by the private Mozambican company Fleetrail, which will work in partnership with the publicly owned port and rail company, CFM, which owns the rail infrastructure.
“Metrobus” is expected to start its operations in December.
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