<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top>Minister of State applauds DART project progress
Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Regional Administration and Local Government Hon. Captain (retired) George H. Mkuchika (MP) (centre in black suit) listens to a briefing on the DART infrastructure development at Kivukoni terminal on February 23, 2011. On his left is DART Chief Executive Mr. Cosmas Takule.
The Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Regional Administration and Local Government (PMO-RALG), Hon. Captain (retired) George Mkuchika has hailed the pace of development of the Dar Rapid Transit project (DART) amid hurdles related to compensation of people affected by the project.
The Minister expressed his appreciation of the project progress during his first visit to DART Agency on February 23 this year.
He said the government has put the DART project a priority in its current fiscal year among other priorities to fast track the fully implementation of the project.
"The establishment of DART Agency is the first step for the government to display its commitment to improve urban public transport in Dar es Salaam where surges of traffic jams are rampant. In the long-run, DART Agency will be expected to introduce and manage Bus Rapid Transit in the other growing cities such as Arusha, Mwanza, and Mbeya", said the Minister.
In order for the DART project to be implemented faster than it is now, the Minister requested the people affected by project to collect their compensations rather than keeping on going to court to demand amounts of compensations whose evaluation standards do not adhere to the laws of Tanzania.
He warned those who are still nursing the idea of resisting to vacate the sites earmarked for the project on baseless grounds including ballooning of compensations and injecting ghost names in order to get illegal money. He said the adamant in this case will only force the government to apply force to evict them instead of using negotiations.
The Minister insisted: "The government is not going to tolerate anymore people intending to frustrate the project. This project is for the interests of the nation. Due to escalation of heavy traffic jam in Dar es Salaam, we are forced to spend many hours on the road instead of using these hours working. We are also spending a lot of fuels, an ever imported product which erodes much of our economic power".
Commenting on how the existing commuter buses, popularly known as
daladala, he assured the daladala owners of their continuity to operate in the city while other phases of DART infrastructure construction is going on.
He said the existing daladala would be relocated to other routes that the DART project has not yet been implemented. Moreover, he said daladala owners and other stakeholders in transport sector would be invited to invest in the project by establishing companies that will have qualified to run business in the DART system.
Captain Mkuchika also highlighted the importance of being proactive in many aspects of running DART system, singling out the aspect of having qualified drivers of DART buses by starting making arrangements for training of drivers. He said this can be done by liasing with academic institutions that deal with transport in the country.
He emphasized that DART personnel should make sure they worked very hard according to ethical principles of public service.
Giving briefing to the Minister, the DART Agency Chief Executive Mr. Cosmas Takule, said all the packages for DART infrastructure construction have got contractors except that some sites are not yet free for construction due to unwillingness of some people affected by the project to collect their compensations on time.
The visit by the Minister to DART Agency was concluded by taking a site-seeing of corridor phase I starting from Ubungo, Shekilango, Mwinyijuma, Kariakoo Gerezani and Kivukoni.
The Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Regional Administration and Local Government, Hon. Captain (retired) George H. Mkuchika (MP) and DART stakeholders during site-visit at Shekilango Feeder on February 23, 2011.
The Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Regional Administration and Local Government Hon. Captain (retired) George H. Mkuchika (MP) (centre in black suit), looking at the architectural designs of DART infrastructure at Mwinyijuma during his visit on February 23, 2011.
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