NMS begins works to give Muthurwa terminus facelift

Construction works at the Muthurwa bus terminus has started as Nairobi Metropolitan Service embark on finalising the city's decongestion plan.

A site visit by the Star on Tuesday, revealed that a section of the Muthurwa terminus has been fenced off with iron sheets.

Inside the secluded area, workers were laying cabro blocks and shed like structures have also been erected.

NMS Director of Transport and Public Works Michael Ochieng yesterday  confirmed that the works started are to give the bus terminus a facelift as they prepare to decongest the CBD from matatus.

“We  have began construction works at Muthurwa which has never been rehabilitated since 2008. The works will create space to accommodate more matatus in an orderly manner,” Ochieng said.

Muthurwa terminus is one of six other termini that NMS director general Mohammed Badi is setting up for Sh350 million.

They will officially be pick up and drop off points once matatus are barred from the CBD.

The terminus at Muthurwa-Ladhies will handle PSV buses from Jogoo and Lusaka road.

The others include Desai, Park road, Green Park , Fig Tree terminus and Bunyala-Workshop road.

Bunyala -Workshop road termini will be reserved for matatus plying Mombasa Road, South B, South C, Industrial Area, Imara Daima, Athi River, Kitengela and Machakos routes.

All matatus currently using Tea Room and Accra Road plying the Thika Superhighway and long-distance matatus from Mt Kenya will move to Desai and Park Road termini in Ngara.

Green Park terminus which is estimated to have cost around Sh250 million will be set aside for matatus using the Ngong and Lang’ata routes.

According to NMS, the section being worked on in Muthurwa is slightly smaller compared to Green Park but will have the same designs.

“The area under construction once complete will be joined with the other section that is currently being used by Jogoo road matatus, making it an even  bigger terminus,” Ochieng’ said.

The Muthurwa  terminus and market was commissioned by former President Mwai Kibaki in December 2007.

The terminus was expected to ease traffic congestion in the city centre by acting as a depot for all public service vehicles from Eastlands.

It was to accommodate more than 7,000 vehicles daily but the space available can only allow 1,000 PSVs.

The then Nairobi CBD Association chairman Timothy Muriuki had called for the expansion of the feeder roads to the terminus as well as space within the terminus.

NMS is now set to start implementing the decongestion plan next month.

“The change we are making in this city in terms of traffic to decongest it has been done in other parts of the world and it must be done in Kenya too," the NMS  director of transport said.

"We must take the lead in East Africa to show that we are able to manage our public transport.”

He explained that terminals will be digitally controlled, with vehicles electronically captured on a billboard that will show its number plate and route.

The Green Park, Desai and Park Road termini will be the first to open as part of efforts to decongest the city centre.

Ochieng said the three are expected to start operating before the end of April.

The Sh250 million Green Park terminal is 98 per cent complete while the other two, meant for long-distance PSVs from the Mt Kenya region, were completed more than a year ago.

The two terminals can accommodate 160 vehicles at once and process up to 600 vehicles per hour.

Green Park has a capacity to hold between 300 and 350 vehicles at once.

The terminus can process about 1,000 PSVs per hour and up to 20,000 per day.

(Edited by Francis Wadegu)