The first 100 batch of 500 medium-sized passenger buses imported from China with a loan secured from HSBC, arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Thursday January 17, 2008.
The buses, which are imported with a view to alleviating the acute shortage of transportation in the city, will be sold to provide taxi services to the public in Addis Ababa and other major towns.
Each bus, which has a capacity of seating 27 passengers, was procured at a cost of 332,000 birr.
Public Relations Section Head with the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Berhanu Amsalu, told Capital that the 100 buses that have already arrived in the city go into service in the next two weeks. He further said that a tariff has already been calculated per kilometer.
The remaining 400 buses are expected to arrive in Addis Ababa late this month.
The buses, according to some of the drivers who drove them from Djibouti, should not have fetched the above mentioned prices adding that the ministry should have had trial tests before purchasing the buses in this quantity.
The head said that the ministry has already secured buyers for the 100 buses that arrived, of which 30% of the cost should be paid first with the rest paid in five years time.
Victor Gao, Project Manager for the Chinese bus maker Higer, told Capital that they sold their buses at a price of 26,300 dollars at point of production. He said a team of technicians has arrived to give technical support.
According to him, Walya Inter City Buses is represented for the after sales services.
The project manager said that this is their first major African deal and added that they also have a market in Algeria.
According to him, Higer Buses is the biggest bus manufacturer in China, where over half of the countrys demand is met by his company.