{"id":5996,"date":"2020-10-21T10:22:32","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T07:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/?p=5996"},"modified":"2020-10-21T10:22:32","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T07:22:32","slug":"brt100billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/brt100billion\/","title":{"rendered":"The BRT project will set us back Ksh 100 billion @KenyanTraffic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">Taxpayers are expected to foot a Ksh 100 billion bill to facilitate the construction of 5 Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system lanes in Nairobi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">The massive project requires expanding existing roads, installing supporting infrastructure and acquiring high-capacity buses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">The five proposed BRT lines in the capital city are:<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">1. Ndovu (Kangemi \u2013 Imara)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">2. Simba (Bomas \u2013 Ruiru, includes Thika Superhighway)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">3. Chui (Njiru &#8211; Show Ground)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">4. Kifaru (Mama Lucy &#8211; T-Mall)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">5. Nyati (Balozi \u2013 Imara)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">According to the Nairobi BRT Labour Impact Assessment Research Report January 2019, commissioned by the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), the Ksh100 billion government project would need at least 15 years to see out the project.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">In April 2018, Transport CS James Macharia, explained that the project was approved as the BRT system would help greatly in easing Nairobi&#8217;s traffic congestion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">However, he further pointed out that the project would most likely take much longer than the projected timelines as people had encroached into road reserves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">In April 2018, pink road markings appeared on the \u2018Thika Superhighway\u2019, designated as the BRT lanes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">According to CS Macharia, the express lanes would be used by high capacity buses carrying 80 passengers, travelling non-stop from outlying estates to the Central Business District (CBD).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">The buses were to be operated by the National Youth Service (NYS).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">In October 2018, President Kenyatta announced that at least two stages of BRT must be ready for him to ride by December 12, 2018, but this is yet to be achieved 2 years later.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">On July 22, 2019, \u00a0the government has withdrew from the planned Ksh1.64 billion purchase of high capacity buses for use in the BRT System.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">This scared the local manufacturers, who had been assured that they would supply half of the vehicles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">An alternative plan was quickly drawn up \u00a0that would see the private sector \u2013 through a consortium of public transport sector operators \u2013 purchase the buses and run them under regulations set by the Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (NaMATA).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">The government had rushed to procure buses long before the roads were ready and has now been forced back to the drawing board to demarcate Thika road afresh, build stations and footbridges at a cost of Ksh5.6 billion before rolling out the plan, which will involve 950 buses at full implementation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">Francis Gitau, the chief executive of NaMATA, in an interview, revealed\u00a0that the buses would\u00a0be equipped with Wi-Fi and coffee shops and that the passengers would\u00a0use electronic cards to pay for the services.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">\u201cThe aim is to introduce a reliable and efficient mass transit system that will attract even those using private vehicles,\u201d Gitau explained.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) is overseeing the project .<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">It has since been revealed that the four footbridges under construction on Thika Road are designed as modules for ease of modifications to accommodate BRT services.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Read original post on <a href=\"http:\/\/Kenyans.co.ke\">Kenyans<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taxpayers are expected to foot a Ksh 100 billion bill to facilitate the construction of 5 Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system lanes in Nairobi.\u00a0 The massive project requires expanding existing roads, installing supporting infrastructure and acquiring high-capacity buses. The five proposed BRT lines in the capital city are: 1. Ndovu (Kangemi \u2013 Imara) 2. Simba&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,1905],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-news"],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pej6K6-1yI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-content\/uploads\/BRT-Project-Kenya.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magaripoa.com\/gari\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}