By Patrick Osadebamwen
The new transport policy of the Federal Capital Territory Administration aimed at providing efficient transport operation within the Federal Capital City, (FCC) takes off today with 350 high capacity busses deployed to various part of the territory to convey passengers into the city centre.
Mandate Secretary, transport secretariat, Engr. Jonathan Ivoke said this at the weekend while conducting road show to various parts of the city to sensitize residents on the administration’s preparedness to commence implementation of the policy stressing there it will drop fare by about 40 percent for commuters.
Ivoke who spoke through the Director Mass Transit, Engr. Adewole Adeosho, said the commencement of the policy will restrict mini-bus drivers operations to the earlier delineated routes outside the city as they are free to operate in the satellite town where they are permitted to ply their trade.
He emphasized that their operations would terminate at the various interchanges on the Kubwa axis, Yar’ Adua expressway, and Nyanya interchange where they are to feed the highway with passengers for the high capacity busses to commute into the city.
Taxis are exempted from the restriction as their services will still be needed in the tcity and other part of the territory.
Ivoke added that the introduction of the full services of the high Capacity buses in the city will reduce the rate of accidents witnessed on the road as the drivers are trained to observe road codes and respect the speed limits.
Making further explanation on the level or readiness by the administration, the public relations officer, Mrs. Stella Ojeme told reporters that by the end of June the high capacity buses will be increased to 600 following more deployment by other licensees.
According to her, by the end of “June another batch of 300 busses would be deployed into the city by the various licensed companies” and emphasized that the busses will be running on schedule thereby making it easy for commuters to meet appointments and increase man-hour for public and private business operations.
She noted that the lowest fare is N50 while the highest stands at N150 for the farthest distances of Gwagwalada, Kuje and Zuba.
“The 350 buses to ply the city have been distributed to meet the volume of commuters in the various axis for Nyanya we have 80 busses to ply that route alone, while we have 60 buses allocated to the Kubwa axis and the others are distributed to the other parts of town.
“The buses are going to run scheduled services where each bus must take off every 3 minutes on the Nyanya, Zuba and Kubwa axis while in the case of low traffic areas like Gudu District the buses will take off at every 10 minutes.
“We have some interchange points where the certified companies have already cleared to park their vehicle when they deploy them on Monday to pick passengers that the minibuses will drop-off for the high capacity busses to bring them into town, Ojeme stated.
The administration also warned that touts who parade the streets to cause confusion should desist from such activities and allow the high capacity busses to meet the mandate they have been assigned in the territory as anyone arrested attacking or destroying such properties would be prosecuted.
