Dart set to pay Sh7.5 billion in depot transfer

Dar es Salaam. The Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit Agency (Dart) is set to spend Sh7.5 billion on compensating 90 households that will have to leave their areas to pave the way for the construction of its depot at Ubungo Maziwa.

The Agency director transportation development, Mr Fannuel Kalugendo, told The Citizen that following the frequent floods at the Jangwani depot, Dart identified Ubungo Maziwa as a suitable place to construct an alternative depot.

“The area with 68,000 square metres will have a capacity to accommodate 305 BRT phase one buses,” he said.

The evaluation report, which the Dart conducted on the area, had been submitted to the chief government evaluator. The latter had since approved the report. The report will then be submitted to the Treasury so that the funds could be released to compensate the people.

Dart’s plan is to ensure that the construction of its Ubungo Maziwa depot goes in tandem with the government’s Msimbazi Improvement Valley (MIV) project which is to be undertaken as part of the World Bank funded Dar es Salaam Metropolitan Project (DMDP). Actual implementation is set to begin in July.

He stressed that apart from conducting evaluation at Ubungo Maziwa they have also prepared a term of reference to enable detailed engineering designing and social impact assessment so that by July Dart should seek for a contractor to enable the construction to start.

The Jangwani depot has a capacity of accommodating 305 buses, though currently there are only 210 buses.

For over five years of BRT operations the depot has been faced with floods during the rainy season.

Due to frequent occurrence of floods at Jangwani depot, the government decided to offer 52 percent of its land at Ubungo Bus Terminal Depot (UBTD). “Initially, we were supposed to construct an ordinary BRT packing but because of floods we decided to construct Ubungo terminal on the area,” he said.