This archive report was first published on 7 July 2021.
On July 7, 2021, Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority announced plans to offer a private firm a 12-year concession to run bus rapid transport buses (BRT) on Thika and Mombasa roads to ease traffic in Nairobi.
The concessionaire, which could be a single firm or a group of companies in the transport sector, will run 300 BRT buses from next February, ending speculations on who will manage the buses.
The BRT system is one of the features in the planned Sh50 billion first double-decker road, which will involve building a dedicated lane for large-capacity buses to ease traffic congestion.
“BRT will be run through a transport service contract. A concession of about 12 years. The concession will be procured competitively. We are currently developing the request-for-proposal document,” said Francis Gitau, acting director-general of the Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority.
The bus rapid transport system is designed to improve a city’s public transport network relative to conventional buses.
The government plans to launch six BRT corridors in Nairobi, including the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Likoni, James Gichuru-Rironi and Bomas to Ruiru roads, Ngong Road, Juja, Mama Lucy, T-Mall and Balozi to Imara roads.
The corridors are expected to hold up to 950 high-capacity buses reducing travel time and cost by up to 70 percent.
