SOUTHERN PROVINCE MUHANGA — The business community in Muhanga has said that the ongoing fuel shortages affected business transactions and transportation. They have called upon the government to intervene. In a mini survey done by the New Times, the crisis has mostly affected transporters since December last year and the number of commuter buses and motorbike operators have subsequently reduced. Consequently the commuter transporters have raised bus fares from Rwf.700 to Rwf1,500 along the Muhanga-Kigali route. A large number of motorcycle operators in Muhanga have discontinued their services due to the long hours they spend on queues at petrol stations. The motorcycle operators complained that priority has been given to owners of vehicles. The transport crisis has been compounded after 53 motorcycles were on December 24 withheld by Police in a district operation for allegedly refusing to pay the mandatory Rfw.3,000 for public cleaning services prompting many others to temporarily halt their operations. Some motorbikes have reportedly opted to use the black market to get fuel leading to double increment in bus fares. Passengers plying within the Ruhango and Muhanga district routes have raised complaints over high transport costs and the transporters have said that the problem is caused by lack of fuel supply at most petrol stations. On December 3th 2008, a good number of passengers, heading to Kigali-after attending a wedding function were stranded in Gitarama Taxi Park and were forced to spend a night in the area due to the crippling transport crisis. Atraco officials upon being requested to comment on this issue said that they had ‘no form of control’ over the situation adding further that they exercised no supervisory role on other commuter buses other than those which operated under their association. Ends
