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Bus operators irked by long routesby Arusha Times Reporters Residents of Field Force and Migungani areas of Arusha municipality, were this week forced to trek on foot following a sudden strike by the local town bus operators serving the two destinations via Mbauda. Explaining their strike, the bus operators said the distance from town centre to Field Force was much longer than the distance from town to Njiro, yet they are still forced to charge Tsh.150 while their Njiro counterparts charge Tsh.200. The strike however, did not ground the buses, but instead of picking passengers, the operators carried cargo for the traders taking goods to and from Migungani market and ignoring passengers en-route. Due to that, the residents of Migungani, Field Force and Kerai areas had to walk on foot all the way to Mbauda area where they then caught buses to town. The distance from Field Force to Mbauda is about four kilometres. At their recent gathering in Mbauda on Monday, drivers of buses commuting in the area suggested that it was high time that the town-Field Force route is split into two creating a new bus stand at Mbauda. According to the operators, buses from town should end at Mbauda, then other buses should be picking passengers from the area to JR, Kerai, Field Force and Migungani. However, this is bound to highly cost travellers who will thus be subjected to pay a total of Tsh.300 per single trip from Field Force to town. Mbauda and Majengo bound routes apparently have the largest number of passengers when compared to other routes in the municipality. Officials of Arusha-Kilimanjaro Bus Operators Association (AKIBOA)
were not immediately available for comment.
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