POOR transport including road networking in Dar es Salaam City and many more cities in the country poses to becoming exit to losing millions of its money due to hours lost to start jobs in many working places as people cannot start jobs as specified.
The observation is made by former Dar es Salaam City dweller, a South African national, Prof. Ivan Turok, in an exclusive interview with this reporter in Dar es Salaam over the weekend. It was soon after his key note speech at a symposium on ‘Making Urbanization Master Plans Sustainable’ invited by organizers of the event, the UONGOZI Institute.
Noting that Dar es Salaam for instance that poses a major commercial city with main port should rectify infrastructures possible as current road jam (congestion) was not friendly to economy growth, stresses, the Professor, who lived and began school life at Bunge Primary school in sixties while with his father who was employed in Tanzania government.
His comments poses as a strong challenge with analysts look for calculations and computerize results whether Professor’s views and arguments could hold water or not.
Tanzania’s official working hours start at 7.30 am to 3.30pm in government offices and from 8.00 am to 5.00pm with public organizations with similar characteristic in private firms. This is apart from self employed groups under the small scale enterprises (SMEs) the group composes of large part of population.
However, observers contributing on Professor’s views have sided with him by further elaboration assuming that an average all government offices record 50 per cent late arrivals in morning and same rate leaving office much earlier rushing for transport, what would be repercussion in business or services?
Late and early office leaving has been a direct indicator of poor urbani planning which is danger to national growth, citing Dar es Salaam city which is a major commercial and main port city with largest population to the tune estimation about 6m today.
“Unless situation is rectified to speed workforce to start production there is no way it could waste hundreds of man hour from late arrivals at work place which if calculated would mean billions of money lost each day, week, month and annually,” pointes, the professor as observers try to analyze.
He explicitly noting further that still the country especially Dar city that long road jam (congestion), is not friendly to economy growth, notes the Prof. Ivan Turok, saying other challenging infrastructures is on sewage and water systems as well as electricity which has not improve or he could think have not improved in time.
As Principal speaker at the forum, Prof. Turok, notes with concerns that with new natural resources like gas and oil discovery he is sure the country would be possible to taking a new look on every aspect of growth into the right direction.
In a way the Government has shown its indication admitting to the underlined areas posed to be discussed by local experts at a given forum officially officiated by Vice President Dr Mohamed Ghalib Bilal last weekend in Dar es Salaam.
He notes that urban master plans for most of the African countries Tanzania inclusive are outdated which occupies over 70 per cent of dwellers with even those 30 per cent in surveyed areas do not acquire social responsibilities as needed.
He thus asks local city, municipal and town planners to come up with an alternative city and township master plans via their respective authority whenever the old plans have not works, for quick review.
The symposium by the Tanzania’s UONGOZI Institute of African Leadership for Sustainable Development was attended by local and international city and municipal planners and mayors.
In his address to the well attended form, the Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania (URT), Dr Mohamed Ghalib Bilal, expresses his government’s realization of the constraints facing the cities, municipalities and townships from setting good master plans.
source:businesstimes tanznai
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