The Tanzania transport sector has announced that its plans for improvement projects that were designed to help ease the congestion problems in the country’s commercial capital of Dar es Salaam have been completed and construction projects are set to begin next year.
Because traffic congestion has been a recurrent problem in Dar es Salaam, in 1979, the country designed an improvement plan in order to improve the roads system and ease the congestion
This plan was never implemented due to political and economic unrest within the country, however, since then, the country has stabilized and the plan has been updated and is being reinstated.
The updated USD 4.4 trillion plan, which was completed and submitted to the Dar es Salaam City Council (DCC) in June, was designed and developed by engineers and consultants from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
JICA was brought on board three years ago in order to help restructure the previous development plan and to update it so as to meet the current needs of the country.
This newly formulated Dar es Salaam Transport Policy and System Development Master Plan, makes allowances for modern flyover bridges at the Ubungo, Tazara and Bandari intersections in addition to three other bridges at the Mwenge, Morocco and Magomeni intersections as well as an upgrade to the intersection at Changombe.
According to Mr. Junji Shibata, the Project Manager who spoke during a news conference, the anticipated end date for the project is in 2030.
During this time, the transport sector in Tanzania will, for the first time, be introduced to satellite centers and will also witness improvements to major intersections around the country and begin to implement a traffic management system within the central business district of Dar es Salaam.
This 20-year development project could also boost in productivity in the Tanzania construction industry because of many of the projects have been planned, which include the widening of the main arterial highways – Morogoro, New Bagamoyo, Nyerere and Kilwa – as well as the construction of new roads that will run parallel to existing roads such as Ali Hassan Mwinyi, in the Selander Bridge area, and the Morogoro Road.
The objective of these projects is to relieve some of the traffic congestion in these areas, especially during rush hour.
In order to improve the quality of commuters and to oversee all of the transport issues in the country, JICA has also recommended the establishment of the Dar es Salaam Urban Transport Authority.
