The Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, has told Parliament that a value for money assessment is being carried out for the supply of 300 Hyundai buses from Korea and additional 200 buses from China, as government explores avenues to bring in more buses to revamp the operations of the Metro Mass Transit Limited (MMTL) “We are also pursuing other avenues to bring in more buses to revamp the operations of the MMTL.
Currently, Value for Money Assessment is being undertaken for the supply of 300 Hyundai Buses from Korea and additional 200 buses from China. We expect to add a total of 600 new buses within the short-medium term period.” The minister said this on Tuesday when he appeared to answer questions relating to his sector.
According to the minister, the first batch of 45 buses are in production and expected to be delivered by the second quarter of this year. He added that government has signed a contract with VDL Bus Roeselare for the supply of 100 intercity buses, spare parts, and training services. Under the same contract, a total of 50 broken down VDL buses at MMTL would be repaired to augment the fleet.
This project is also being financed with a €25.49 million mixed credit facility from the Government of Belgium and Belfius Bank SA/NV. MMTL, was established with an objective to provide intra-city, interurban and rural-urban bus services in the country. The policy framework for the financing and operations of the MMTL was that government will provide support for the acquisition of buses to enable MMT provide relatively cheaper and affordable mass transportation services to the public as a necessary social service.
A total of 100 new intercity buses have so far been supplied to the MMTL at a total cost of US$17.5million. This was financed by government. One of the key interventions of government has been to assist public and private transport operators to renew their fleet to improve on the safety and comfort of passengers. Transport operators in most cases find it difficult to provide the needed collateral necessary for acquisition of new buses. Already, the MMTL and ISTC have both been supported with new fleet. We are also pursuing other arrangements to bring in 300 buses from Korea to support the private sector operators.