Dakar to Receive New Fully Electric Bus Fleet

Image: Onlyyouqj via Freepik

Global asset manager Meridiam has signed a $212.7 million contract with Dakar’s Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system to provide the city with a fleet of 121 electric buses. Engaged by the Executive Council for Urban Transport in Dakar under the Senegalese Transport Ministry, Meridian will undertake the acquisition, ongoing operation and maintenance of the new electric bus fleet set to launch next year.

In July 2020, Meridiam and partners entered into direct negotiations with authorities, with initial funding secured by FONSIS- the country’s strategic development fund. Following this, an open-access environmental and social impact assessment was submitted and subsequently approved by the World Bank, which is one of the major donors of the BRT project. The validated plans for the fleet show 1000 jobs will be created, 1/3 of them devoted to women and youth, all vehicle batteries fully recycled and 59,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions reduced, improving Dakar’s air quality in the process.

Accompanying the buses, Dakar’s BRT initiative calls for the repair or construction of over 80km of new roads in the city, along with the development of workshops, depots and terminals throughout lines extending 18km out from the city center. This complements further recent developments in the form of a regional express train connecting Dakar and its suburbs – launched last December, and could prove a timely social and economic breakthrough given the estimated $166.87 million cost by traffic jam’s to the nation’s capital each year. Dakar’s population currently stands at 3.33 million inhabitants and is expected to rise a further 40% within the next decade, volumes of city travelers doubling in twenty years.