SUMATRA alerts Dar city Commuters

THE Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority (SUMATRA) has alerted Daladala commuters in Dar es Salaam to be watchful with some bus operators who tend to increase the fare beyond the current rates it had announced over two years ago. An official from SUMATRA made the call early this week in Dar es Salaam when contacted by this paper for clarification after it was found that, there are some daladala operators who have been charging higher the amount of fare along their routes, this was discovered in a secret monitoring sting operation. SUMATRA’s Manager for Public Affairs, David Mziray told the Guardian in an exclusive interview that, his organization is asking for a joint concerted effort among the commuters in order to net the culprits whom he described are violating the rules and regulations set. However, he has cautioned that, the operators should not take the decisions this time around as SUMATRA is currently in a process of collecting views from the main key stakeholders of the regional transport industry in order to look at the possibility of increasing daladala fare as per the request sent t them by the Dar based association of bus operators known by its acronym ‘DARCOBOA’.

Preliminary investigations by this paper has discovered that, almost all daladalas which plies between Mbagala Rangi 3 and Kawe charges their passengers Tsh. 600/- instead of the official rate of Tsh. 500/- which was imposed by SUMATRA over two years ago. Investigations carried in other routes plying between Gongo La Mboto and Kariakoo which according to SUMATRA should be Tsh. 300/- but to the great dismay, most daladalas along the route charges between Tsh 350/- and Tsh 400/- which is contrary as per the SUMATRA’s directives. Meanwhile there is a growing tendency of some daladala operators within some city’s designated routes who are fond of disconnecting their routes during night hours mostly as from 21:00 hours onwards. The malpractice which forces commuters to pay twice, is so notorious and it has indeed become impractically inevitable. It has been discovered in various daladala stages at this time scores of passengers who cannot afford twice the fare are left stranded for lack of transport. A spot check carried out throughout last week in some bus stages within the city like Mwenge, Ubungo, Buguruni, and Tazara saw some buses which are not designated for the route alights their passengers pretending to be the end of the journey. Immediately proceeds ahead by connecting with other passengers. This is a normal phenomenon being practiced in these stages during the night hours when all traffic police at such unlikely time are out of their working points. Should their presence play the role to suppress the movement, but none of them has yet shown such a responsibility, says a stranded woman passenger who had a little child on her back. According to Mziray, this is the misbehavior shown by some commuter operators and is a common practice which whoever is caught is taken before the court of law. However, he affirmed that his organization has been taking stern measures to defaulters wherever possible though sometimes is difficult to control all of them. When contacted for comments, bus drivers and conductors who preferred anonymity said that, they have to do this in order to accumulate enough sum of money needed by their employer at the end of day before they stop. However, others cited the regular increase of fuel prices and also the spiraling operational costs.