MMT
MEMBERS OF Parliament (MPs) have backed two contract agreements between the government (represented by the Ministry of Transport) and VDL Bus Roeselare N.V. of Belgium for an amount of €23,776,703 to procure 100 Intercity VDL buses for the Metro Mass Transport (MMT) Limited.
This will also involve spare parts, tools and technical assistance/training services.
The agreements were presented to Parliament on November 4, 2020 and formed part of the policy framework for the financing and operation of MMT Limited.
MMT Limited took delivery of approximately 140 buses at the end of 2012 and extended its three main services (intra-city service, interurban service and intercity service) to all the regions.
In a report to the plenary, the Committee on Roads and Transport said that enabled the company to extend its services to a greater part of the 260 districts/municipalities of Ghana by operating an average of 727 buses daily on 390 routes and providing direct employment for over 4,000 people.
“The MMTL has particularly been effective in serving difficult-to-reach areas, ensuring that people in these areas have reliable and safe transport options for a variety of reasons, including agriculture and petty trading,” chairman of the committee, Samuel Ayeh-Paye, noted in the report.
It further indicated that by the end of 2018, the company expected all its buses to be replaced for the next period of operations.
However, the company has been able to replace 100 buses with the recent acquisition of the 100 Daewoo Intercity Buses.
“Out of the company’s fleet of 1440, only 182 buses are currently operational,” it said.
Majority of the buses, the report indicated, had outlived their economic lives and “needed to be scrapped, while about 100 require major repairs. Due to the company’s inability to renew its fleet, services have significantly declined.”
To help revamp the operations, the ministry through its fleet renewal programme, applied through the Ministry of Finance to the Belgian Government for a financial intervention by the Belfius Bank SA/NV for a mixed credit facility for the supply of 100 VDL buses to augment MMT’s dwindled bus fleet.
The supply of intercity bus with pacific body, seating capacity of 63 plus drivers, included spare parts and tools with a unit price of €198,500 and batches of spare parts, CIF Tema amounting to €8,926,703.00.
The project scope also involves the repair of 50 broken down vehicles at MMTL, training of bus drivers and maintenance staff of MMTL, provision of adequate after-sales-services and spare parts as well as technical assistance in the form of a grant from the Belgian Government through Finexpo for a total value of €13,295.00 to be provided for the training of MT drivers and bus maintenance staff.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House