The Usafiri Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (Udart) is about to face competition. The government, through the Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit Agency (Dart), will sign a deal with a corporation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to begin offering the service.

Dart CEO Edwin Mhede stated that when all necessary processes were completed, the new service provider was expected to deliver 95 buses to operate in the phase 1 project.

Phase 1 of the Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (BRT) project currently contains 210 buses. This means that the arrival of 95 buses would boost the total number of buses running along Morogororo Road to 305.

According to Dr. Mhede, the new service provider will operate on trunk lines while Udart would operate on feeder routes.

Dr. Mhede emphasised that the new operator's buses will be contemporary. They will feature an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) that will pinpoint a driver's location and detect dead and undead routes.

ITS is a sophisticated application that strives to deliver novel services related to various forms of transportation, such as traffic management, in order to keep users informed and enable them to make safer, more coordinated, and smarter use of transportation networks.

With these buses, daily passenger numbers are estimated to rise from 180,000 to 200,000 to between 400,000 and 500,000.

He explained that the BRT phase 2 work has achieved 66% completion and would be completed in March of next year. Once phase 2 work is done, several Udart buses will begin operating on the Kilwa route.

A population of 1.2 million individuals, he said, will gain from the phase 2 project.

This equates to 25% of the Dar es Salaam city population. Other advantages include those who utilise the primary metropolitan route that connects Mandela and Nyerere.