The municipality of Matola has announced that it is implementing a project aimed at improving urban mobility. It’s called ‘Move Maputo’, valued at 250 million dollars (15.8 billion meticals), made available by the World Bank, which envisages the construction of a transport system called ‘Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)’.
Quoted by Rádio Moçambique, the engineer responsible for the project, Camilo Macunguele, explained that, in this first phase, work is underway to rehabilitate and widen some of the access roads covered by the initiative, emphasising that the aim is to provide better conditions for people living in the Greater Maputo Metropolitan Area.
‘The project is expected to facilitate the transport of more than 124,000 people a day, preventing them from travelling long distances to catch buses. The BRT will start operating from downtown Maputo and will extend along Guerra Popular avenue to Praça dos Combatentes, linking Magoanine to Missão Roque,’ he said.
The engineer also emphasised that in order for the BRT to perform better, there are plans to purchase ‘electric and diesel cars to enable transport from the city to the province and vice versa.’
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) dates back to 2014, when Mozambicans first heard about the project and the Feasibility Study and future routes were presented that year.
According to the presentation known at the time, the first route would start from Praça dos Trabalhadores, in the centre of the capital, using Avenida Guerra Popular, passing through Avenida Acordos de Lusaka to Praça dos Heróis, then Avenida das FPLM to Praça dos Combatentes, taking Julius Nyerere to Praça de Magoanine.
This line would have a branch that would go from downtown Maputo and take the Eduardo Mondlane to the Museum area. These routes would be allocated 78 articulated buses, larger vehicles than those that normally circulate in the capital, with 160 seats each.
The second line would also depart from downtown, following Avenida de Moçambique to Zimpeto. For this, 120 buses were planned, also with 160 seats each.
