Government has imported 66 more state of the art buses from China as the agreements signed during President Mnangagwa’s visit to the Asian country start bearing fruits.
The contingent of Golden Dragon buses that is expected to augment transport challenges across Zimbabwe started arriving in the country via Beitbridge Border post on Sunday evening.
Though the actual cost of each bus could not be readily verified, it is estimated that a similar bus is sold at us$17 000 in China.
By end of day yesterday customs clearing agents contracted by Government were still busy with the importation processes.
The Herald understands that more than 1 000 buses have been acquired from China and they are being delivered to the country in batches.
According to border authorities the buses were shipped in via Durban South Africa from the Asian economic giant.
“This is part of then batches of the many buses that are being imported by Government to resuscitate the transport and logistics sector in the country,” said one official.
It is understood the buses will be managed by ZUPCO.
However, local government and urban development minister Cde July Moyo and his Transport and Infrastructure Development counterpart Engineer Joel Biggie Matiza were not available for comment yesterday.
The latest development comes a few months after President Mnangagwa commissioned 86 Zupco buses between April and August as Government continues to build a safe and reliable transport system.
A further 500 buses from Belarus are on the way.
According to the President Mnangagwa, Government is committed to easing transport challenges by availing reliable and affordable transport to the people in line with Vision 2030.
In his recent address during the commission of 47 buses at Zupco, he said; “My Government will continue to prioritise comprehensive urban public transport systems to increase convenience, reliability and comfort with the commuting public.
“In order to improve the transport service as I have said today, we are releasing 47 buses and the distribution will be announced by Zupco. In addition to these 47 that are being released today, we have another 47 already paid for and are at the border. A big number are still to be shipped from China.
“As I mentioned, the last time we launched the first batch of new buses that as they come in I will have them released, so this is the second consignment of buses which have arrived.
“Some are still at the port and some are still at the border but because of the challenges being faced by our population, both urban and rural, in particular the working population, we have decided to release the buses whenever they arrive so that we ameliorate the challenges of transport system”. – Sunday News
