The Mozambican Minister of Transport, Mateus Magala, on Thursday (13) launched the transport project “Move Maputo”, which aims to improve urban mobility and alleviate the transport problems in the metropolitan area of Maputo.
The project provides for the implementation of the public transport system BRT (‘Bus Rapid Transit’), or rapid transit buses.
“The BRT system, which has been successfully implemented in over 300 cities around the world, provides exclusive lanes for public transport buses, and is an accessible and quick alternative for solving many of our transport problems,” said the Minister of Transport and Communications, who said that the poor “road network, low connectivity, poor institutional coordination, the informalisation of operators and unsustainable funding were among the main causes of Mozambique’s transport problems. The BRT system will ease road traffic congestion, reduce travel time and the level of environmental pollution, as well as increasing road safety,” he said.
The initiative will initially be implemented in two corridors – Baixa-Magoanine and Zimpeto-Matola Gare – and will benefit over 124,000 passengers, and the neighbourhoods covered by the system will have “safer and more resilient access roads, improved public lighting, cycle paths, asphalted roads and water drainage systems,” Magala said.
The project, funded by the World Bank at US$250 million, includes exclusive lanes for public buses and the possibility of acquiring 120 buses.
The Mozambican government hopes that by July 2026 the system will be fully operational and capable of offering quality services.
The Maputo metropolitan area, with around three million inhabitants, covers the district of Marracuene and the municipalities of Maputo, Matola and Boane, concentrating over 70% of the country’s vehicle fleet.
The transport sector in Mozambique is one of the most deficient in terms of national public services, especially road transport, where the crisis in resources has triggered the use of open-top vehicles, known as “my love”, given the physical proximity with which passengers travel in the cargo box and the need sometimes to hug each other so as not to fall on the road.
The situation tends to worsen due to the escalation of fuel prices, with constant paralysis of passenger transport in several Mozambican cities.
