Over 300 new public transport buses will be introduced in Kigali in the next three months to ease the public transport shortage challenges that have been faced by commuters in the past few years.

This was said by the Minister of State for Infrastructure Patricie Uwase, during the 18th National Dialogue (Umushyikirano) on Monday, February 27.

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Responding to a question asked by Louis Habarurema, a citizen who wanted to know what is being done to solve the delays people experience waiting for buses in the city, Uwase admitted that such issues are real, adding that there is a plan to deal with them.

"We are close to buying 300 new buses that will come in to complement those that are there. We currently have a problem of inadequacy of buses because their number has been reducing over time. From 2012 to 2014, something was done (in regard to getting more buses in the city), but after that, no proper follow-up was done. As a result, the number of buses is small which means long queues during rush hours,” she said.

"We have started to look for where they will be procured from. The budget is available so what remains is ordering for them. I think it will not take more than three months,” she added.

The new buses will be operated by the private sector, Uwase noted.

She also hinted at renovating Nyabugogo bus park by separating the areas where the buses that go to out of the country park and those that operate within Rwanda park.

According to information released by officials at the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) last year, the average time to wait for a bus was between 30 minutes and an hour.

In an interview last year, City of Kigali engineer Emmanuel Katabarwa said there was a need for over 500 buses to help end public transport woes in the city.

He said the 500 buses in the capital should each carry between 39 and 70 passengers for a particular route.

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