East African Business Week (Kampala)
Elias Wambura
23 August 2009
Dar Es Salaam — Low financial capability of people in purchasing new and modern vehicles leads to environmental pollution.
The Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority (SUMATRA) has advised that in order to reduce pollution of the environment there should be good coordination among stakeholders dealing with safety and environmental issues.
So, SUMATRA has urged the government of Tanzania to establish an independent and mandatory vehicle inspection because the current police vehicle inspectors are lowering the quality of inspection due to their poor working tools. Engineer Aaron Kisaka of the Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority said if an independent system is instituted, imported motor vehicles will be properly tested and certified to meet standards and thus reduce environmental pollution.
Safety and environmental issues are dealt with by many government institutions such as Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) for standards of buses; Police for vehicle inspection and enforcement; NEMC for environmental protection and SUMATRA for regulating surface and marine transport services. However, there is lack of coordination among these institutions and as a result environmental pollution has been worsening daily.
Meanwhile, Engineer Enoch Kitandu of Dar Rapid Transit Agency (DART) said since congestion is one of the major factors that contribute to the environmental degradation, the coming of modern public transport system will solve it.
The Dar Rapid Transit system is expected to solve the prevalent public transport problems in Dar es Salaam, which are reducing air quality degradation. The DART system in Dar will utilize high quality articulated buses (EURO III engine) with 140-passenger capacity running on dedicated lanes.
The commencement of DART system will be a great blessing to the city dwellers because it will not only solve traffic congestion that has been affecting work trips and personal ones thus slowing economic activities, but will alsobe environmentally friendly."Since there is no sharing of routes with daladala, a single DART bus will displace about 10 minibuses, together with their usual terribly fuming exhausts, reducing congestion and pollution along the corridor," he explained.
Displacing 10 old dilapidated daladala along DART corridors per articulated bus means reducing gas emissions to a great extent, thus improving air quality and human health.
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