Colombia is to invest in $847 million over two years in mass-transit bus systems, similar to Bogota‘s TransMilenio, in seven cities throughout the country, newspaper El Tiempo reported Sunday.
The funding of the transport systems, called Strategic Public Transport Systems, is to come from the national government and the city councils, which are to put forward 70% and 30% respectively.
The new bus networks are to go into service at the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2014 in the cities of Pasto, Valledupar, Armenia, Santa Marta, Sincelejo, Monteria and Popayan.
The aim is to improve mobility, put an end to rogue bus services, reduce pollution and the accident rate and renew the fleet of buses, which are on average 12 years old.
An example is the Transcaribe of Cartagena which will go into operation in the second half of 2012. “These systems emphasize the control of the fleet, have centralized pick-up points and require less infrastructure,” said Maria del Pillar Granados Galvis, co-coordinator of the Mass Transport Unit of the Ministry of Transport.
They will also receive funding from private companies and multilateral institutions such as the in the Inter-American Development Bank, which approved $320 million for the financing of these bus networks in September.