Maputo Bus Rapid Transport system faces lack of funding

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Maputo Bus Rapid Transport system faces lack of funding

7:25 CAT | 28 Oct 2016

Moz Life (File photo) / Maputo's BRT project

The bus rapid transit (BRT) scheme for Maputo is now in doubt because of lack of funds, reports Thursday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

The Mozambican government had agreed finance for the project with Brazil, but that was before the overthrow of the elected President, Dilma Roussef.

The Maputo BRT was costed at 225 million US dollars. Preliminary work, including identifying the households to be resettled and the structures that must be demolished to make way for the bus lanes has already been undertaken. Building the BRT should have begun – but there is no money, supposedly because the Brazilian legal authorities are looking at all the agreements signed by the Roussef government.

The Mayor of Maputo, David Simango, told reporters that the Mozambican and Brazilian governments are talking about the matter, but he could not confirm whether Brazil would still finance the project as initially agreed.

But he added that the municipality is now in discussion with other, unnamed, bodies with a view to obtaining the necessary finance.

In its initial phase, the planned BRT would imply structural changes in eight major roads on a route from downtown Maputo to the outer neighborhood of Magoanine. 160 articulated buses would be acquired for this route.

Simango insisted that, even if the Brazilians did withdraw their funding, the BRT will go ahead. In principle, the system could carry 7,500 passengers an hour, and would greatly relieve the Maputo public transport system.

Source: AIM