The project that aims at improving the very pathetic traffic jam situation in Dar es Salaam has arguably been among the greatest road projects in the city in modern times. At about fifty percent completion or so, there have been many issues of concern. These range from the increased traffic jam during the construction period especially along
Morogoro road. As the project approaches the end date, students as well as scholars, consultants, practitioners and decision makers in various aspects and modes of the long project management chain can pick a number of lessons from the project. Whereas some are good practices to be emulated in similar projects and projects in similar enviroment, others are negative and bad practices that should be avoided. In this article, the author outlines bad practices in the DART project with a focus on what has and what has not happened with the Ubungo International Bus Terminal in the context of DART.
Project concept
A project is a specific activity that aims to accomplish specific objectives. It has a set of activities with specific time lines, duration and specifications. Projects have various stakeholders, are complex and need thorough planning along various phases including conceptualisation, identification, analysis, selection, implementation and monitoring and evaluation (M&E). If the various aspects of project phases are not well captured and dealt with, project success – measured by accomplishment in time, within budget and specification – may be at a stake.
Bad project activities sequencing
From the concept and good practices in project management in general and project activities sequencing in particular, a new location of new bus terminal should have been identified and constructed well ahead of DART project completion date. There have been pieces of information that the new terminal would be constructed at Mbezi Luisi. Up to March 2014, there had not been signs that a bus terminal of at least the size and status of the current Ubungo bus terminal would be constructed any time soon. This is a bad practice in project management in general and project implementaion in particular. Logic and common sense would have it that the alternative terminal should have been built before the demolition of the current one and before the completion of the DART project.
Build before demolition
Demolition of the terminal in the absence of an alternative one is illogical in project logical flow of activities. It is a bad example and practice of how to deal with users of current structures and facilities. Indeed it is also a bad practice because the involved authorities, in this case Kinondoni District Council, loses revenues because it cannot and should not go on collecting revenues from demolished facilities. If alternative terminal was built before demolition, there would not be a gap in revenue inflows to the authorities from various sources.
Roles and responsibilities in projects
Among the newest and shocking information in the implementation of the DART project in general and construction of new bus terminal in particular is on who is responsible. In the week starting 17th March 2014, there has been pieces of information that both the company implementing DART – Straabag and Kinondoni Municipal Council have denied having responsibility to construct the new bus terminal. According to some sections of the media, Straabag stated that it is not its responsibility to build the new terminal and as such it has no budget for that activity. Kinondoni Municipal Council on the other hand is also reported to have issued a similar statement. If all these are true, it is very unfortunate. The DART project may be accomplished but without new Ubungo bus terminal in place, the intended objectives may not be achieved. This gives lesson on the need of very early distribution and assignment of binding roles and responsibilities to parties in a project. This is a project management and implementation aspect that should have been settled at the project conceptualization phase not at this stage of almost commissioning the roads. It is therefore a very bad project management and implementation practice that may have very many and far-reaching negative implications to the many users of Ubungo bus terminal and all Dar es Salaam people.
Ways forward
Having seen some of these bad practices in the DART project, the best thing include picking the lessons and making the necessary possible corrections before everything else is too late. If the key stakeholders especially decision makers remain silent and do not act as if everything else was ok it will be very unfortunate. Without a new bus terminal or terminals before the completion and commissioning of the project the new roads may not give the needed and deserved value for money for the project.
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