The BRT bus service will be launched along the Thika Superhighway in June and commuters will be required to pay Ksh150 per trip.
According to Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (Namata) Director-General Francis Gitau the BRT system is 70 percent to complete.
He further announced that at the start, passengers will pay a flat rate regardless of distance.
“Passengers will pay Sh150 per trip on Line 2, which is the longest at 27 kilometres. This is only during the trial phase, which will start at Kasarani and terminate at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH). However, once everything starts running smoothly, we’ll see what to do,” Eng Gitau said.
“We are working at the factory on the structures, which once completed, will be delivered on site and fitted. Work is still going on and we are expecting to start trials by latest July,” he added.
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The BRT system is expected to ease the traffic menace in Nairobi and its environs.
Other than Kasarani, the other BRT line will start in Ruiru and also end at KNH terminal. There will be 13 stations with 24 platforms.
“Ten existing footbridges are being modified by adding staircases in the middle to allow for passengers entering and exiting the stations,” Principal Secretary in the State Department of Housing and Urban Development Charles Hinga said.
The buses will share the road with other vehicles but will have a designated inner lane.
Hinga noted that the high capacity buses will ease the cost of transportation in the country. He added that the vehicles, being electric and hybrid, are meant to reduce the country's carbon footprint.
“We want to lead from the front when it comes to (fight against) climate change. We have an opportunity to move from rhetoric to actualising this aspiration,” PS Hinga said.
The government is expected to procure up to 100 high-capacity buses in the coming months. That will increase to 300 in subsequent orders. Eventually, there will be 660 when the entire lane is completed.
“The initial fleet is 100 but going up to 300 in subsequent orders. We are targeting June or July. Local content is minimum 40 percent,” the PS said.
The government is building a park and ride facility in Kasarani where motorists can park their vehicles and use BRT for the remainder of their journey.
