Mozambican government launches transport project to improve mobility in Maputo

The Mozambican Minister of Transport, Mateus Magala, today launched the transport project “Move Maputo”, which aims to “improve urban mobility” and “solve transport problems” in the metropolitan area of Maputo.

The project foresees implementing the public transportation system BRT (‘Bus Rapid Transit’), which are buses of fast transit, advanced by the governor during the launching of the initiative in Maputo.

“The BRT system, successfully implemented in more than 300 cities in the world, provides exclusive lanes for public transport buses, being an affordable and fast alternative to solve many of our transport problems,” said the Minister of Transport and Communications.

According to Mateus Magala, the weak “road network and low connectivity, the deficient institutional coordination, the informalization of the operators and the unsustainable financing” are among the main causes of the transport problems in Mozambique.

“The ‘Move Maputo’ project aims to respond to these challenges,” said Mateus Magala, adding that the BRT system will decongest road traffic, reduce travel time and the level of environmental pollution, as well as increase road safety.

The minister said the BRT system would initially be implemented in two corridors, Baixa-Magoanine and Zimpeto-Matola Gare, benefiting more than 124,000 passengers.

Magala said the neighborhoods covered by the system would have “safer and more resilient access roads, improved public lighting, bicycle lanes, paved roads, and water drainage systems.

The project, financed by the World Bank with US$250 million, foresees exclusive lanes for public buses and the possibility of acquiring 120 buses, Magala added.

The Mozambican government hopes that by July 2026, the system will be “fully operational and capable of offering quality services.”

The Maputo metropolitan area, with around three million inhabitants, covers the district of Marracuene and the Maputo, Matola, and Boane municipalities, concentrating “more than 70% of the vehicle fleet of the whole country,” according to data from the Mozambican Transport Minister.

The transport sector in Mozambique is one of the most deficient in terms of public services in the country, especially road transport, where the crisis has triggered the use of open-top vehicles, jokingly known as “my love”, given the physical proximity with which passengers travel in the cargo box of goods and the need to sometimes hug each other to avoid falling on the road.

The situation tends to get worse due to the escalation of fuel prices, with constant stoppages of passenger transport in several Mozambican cities, as a sign of protest for the lack of increase in travel fares, which are regulated, due to the silence of the authorities in relation to the operators’ demand for a price increase.

With information from Lusa