By Derick Tsimba

President Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to commission a fleet of 77 ZUPCO buses at Kelvin Deport in Bulawayo this Friday, The Harare Post has learnt.

Of the 77 buses, 70 are Golden Dragon buses which were sourced from China while seven are Volkswagen (VW) buses which were sourced from South Africa.

The 77 buses are going to be distributed in cities across the country and help augment inter-city routes.

Commissioning of the buses is ahead of the pending arrival of another consignment of 500 buses from Belarus in January next year.

The buses expected to arrive from Belarus are all terrain buses which are going to be servicing rural routes. Of these 500 buses, 200 will be coming as fully fully assembled whilst the remaining 300 will be assembled in Zimbabwe in partnership with AVM Africa Company.

The launch of the ZUPCO buses in Bulawayo is in line with government’s thrust to decentralise its programme which has already been launched twice in Harare at ZUPCO Belvedere depot in April and July 2019.

Recently government contracted commuter omnibuses and continues to give them $500 and 40 litres of fuel per day to provide transport services for urban commuters. Commuters now prefer to board the ZUPCO commuter omnibuses as their transport costs are favourable. More commuter omnibus operators are joining the service as they have seen that it is lucrative.