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‘Happy Hour’ for daladala commutersby Arusha Times Reporter Local commuters who depend on town buses for their daily transport have devised their own fare driven rush hours that are of economic advantage to them. Most workers and traders now choose to travel during the "grace hours" of morning and evening, when the fare charges normally drop from the fixed Tsh.200 and Tsh.150 to Tsh.100. The local "grace hours" as far as town transport is concerned are between 6.00am and 9.00am in the morning and 5.30pm to late hours of the night. During that period the normal queues at the bus station are not honoured. To beat the competition, each bus operator drops the fare charges down to Tsh.100 while at the same time offering free complimentary baggage space, normally charged between Tsh.200 and Tsh.500 at other operating times. Fare charges for vehicles commuting within the Arusha municipality as fixed by the Arusha and Kilimanjaro Bus Operators Association (AKIBOA) is Tsh.150. Town buses which operate between the municipality and other suburban destinations like Ngaramtoni, Tengeru, Njiro and Kisongo, charge Tsh.200 per passenger, while residents travelling to Usa River and Maji-ya-Chai pay Tsh.300. Monduli bound buses and those that go to as far as Kikatiti charge Tsh.500 per passenger. However, since the introduction of commercial vehicles road toll in Monduli, the operators have hiked the charges to Tsh.700 per passenger. A total of 650 town buses, mostly fabricated delivery vans,
are currently operating in Arusha.
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