Senegal's Sall inaugurates e-bus fleet of Dakar public transport network

After a four-year wait, Dakar residents will soon move around their city on board these electric buses.

The vehicles are part of the new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) fleet which was inaugurated on Sunday by the President of Senegal. The 120 e-buses will be powered by solar energy.

"Sunday, 14th of January will go down in our history as a day on which we took another leap towards a modern Senegal," Macky Sall said. 

"We did it with the regional trains, now the BRT reinforces our commitment to the new era of the mass transportation revolution which solves today's problems and anticipates those of tomorrow."

The BRT will connect 14 communes of Dakar from north to south. The large-capacity buses (appromitalety 150 seats) are set to carry some 300,000 passengers a day. 

Residents are hopeful the new fleet will help with the city's congested traffic.

It will improve urban mobility in the agglomeration of Dakar. It is really difficult to leave the suburbs and go to Dakar or doing the journey the other way around. I believe the two major projects by his excellency president Macky Sall will undoubtedly have a positive social impact.

There is heavy traffic on our roads that's why the BRT will bring major changes. The BRT will decongest our roads. We really loose so much time in the jams.

The BRT was financed by the world bank, the European Investment Bank and the State of Senegal. It cost about 300 billion CFA francs (about 500 million US dollars).