GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPALITY TO DISCUSS FUTURE OF TPM

The Mozambican government and Mpauto Municipal Council will decide, over the next few days, whether to liquidate the current publicly owned Maputo Bus Company (TPM).TPM covers routes in Maputo and the neighbouring city of Matola, with some routes extending into the neighbouring districts of Boane and Marracuene. But it is now planned to set up two new municipal bus companies, run by the Maputo and Matola municipal councils, calling the future of TPM into serious question.The municipal transport companies, which could be operating as early as the second quarter of this year, result from the continuing decentralisation of services from the central government to the municipalities. Speaking to reporters on Friday, the Mayor of Maputo, David Simango, said the municipality and the government have yet to discuss the future of TPM, and are taking into account suggestions made by the consultancy and auditing company, Ernst and Young. “We are going to discuss whether or not TPM will co-exist with the municipal transport company, but the general trend is that, with decentralisation, the old companies die and the newly-created ones remain”, said Simango .Among other questions to be discussed with the government are the payment of subsidies to the transport companies and who will deal with TPM’s current debts to the banks. The study by Ernst and Young recommends not only maintaining TPM’s current 210 routes but opening new routes. It also recommends boosting the bus fleet from the existing 273 buses to 400 or 500. The figure currently cited is that TPM only carries about 10 per cent of the 900,000 daily passengers in the greater Maputo metropolitan area (though that figure was circulating before a recent increase in the size of the TPM fleet). Most of the passengers are left to the mercy of private operators. The minibuses they use (known as “chapas”) are often in a dangerous mechanical condition and are grossly overcrowded. The number of operational “chapas” seems to have declined, which may account for the re-appearance of pick-up trucks crowded with passengers in the back, riding in uncomfortable and unsafe conditions.Simango warned that it should not be imagined that simply acquiring more buses will solve the problem. “We need to think about trains, river transport, a metro and other forms of transport, and not just the TPM fleet”, he saidAlthough such forms of transport involve heavy capital costs, the mayor said planners must think about the growth in the city’s population, the limited number of roads into and out of the city, the growth in automobile traffic and other disadvantages arising from the exclusive use of road transport.