Jali Transport, one of Kigali City transport operators, initially RFTC
Delay on bus stops and taxi parks in Kigali could be alleviated in the next three months if the private sector and the Ministry of Infrastructure walk the talk.
At the ongoing National Dialogue Umushyikirano, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Infrastructure Patricie Uwase said that they are working with investors to make the transport convenient.
“We took note of delays of commuters on bus stops and taxi parks. We are soon adding three hundred buses in the public transport in Kigali to solve the problem,” Uwase said in response to the concern of a citizen who said, that commuters wait up to three hours to board.
The Minister was asked to be clear on the timeline to have the buses hit the road and she said “it will work within three months, in partnership with the private sector.”
The Kigali city public transport was open to every taxi operator until 2013 when three companies were hired to operate on a contract with Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority(RURA) for a period of five years.
Operating in Kigali Public Transport currently are Rwanda Federation of Public Transport Cooperative(RFTC) which rebranded as Jali Transport just for Kigali, Kigali Bus Service, Royal Express and recently added Volcano Express.
The contract for the three first companies was renewed, but they did not meet expectations which included to reduce the time a commuter wait for a bus to some 15 minutes, from one to two hours during top hours.
Since a couple of months, commuters outcry increased, according to which public transport is becoming tremendously deceitful.
At Umushyikirano, Minister Uwase admitted that there was lack of follow up on the public transport issues where number of buses kept reducing until it was wanting.
“The three companies did not manage. This time, we have opened space for all operators who will fulfil the conditions,” she said.
According to city Engineer Emmanuel Katabarwa, the City of Kigali needs around 500 buses to deal with its public transportation challenges, against 229 available as for August 2022. This implies a-271 bus gap, according to Eng. Katabarwa.
