Arusha — ARUSHA: THE Land Transport and Regulatory Authority (LATRA) has called upon the upcountry bus owners to ensure they issue online tickets to passengers, or else strict measures will be taken against them.
This comes after the authority revoked licenses of all buses belonging to Kilimanjaro Express Company. Without going into details, the buses will not be allowed carry passengers in a suspension period that was not specified.
In line with this, LATRA Arusha Regional Manager Michael Joseph yesterday ordered the operators to issue electronic tickets.
“Any passenger who bought paper tickets from Kilimanjaro Buses should be refunded their fares and also passengers must buy online tickets for the sake of helping the government to increase revenue collection,” he said.
According to LATRA Manager the owner of Kilimanjaro buses has failed to implement the government’s order.
“We ask every passenger to make sure they purchase an online ticket for every bus that operates between Arusha and other upcountry regions so as to get rid of unnecessary inconveniences,” Mr joseph said
On her part, Arusha Traffic Police Commander Zauda Mohamed urged every bus owner in Arusha to follow the procedures which the government has set, including issuing online tickets to passengers and not increase fare as it is against the procedures .
Ms Mohamed also insisted the bus drivers to follow the travel schedule set by the authority in attempts to remove unnecessary confusion to the passengers.
He stated this after noticing that some buses were leaving the terminals without adhering to the schedule, hence causing unnecessary inconveniences.
“I am here to make sure that every passenger is refunded after the Kilimanjaro Buses saga and I would like take this opportunity to encourage other passengers to book online tickets, because the government issued those instructions,” she said.
On January 6 this year, LATRA’s Director General Habibu Suluo, suspended the licenses of 35 buses of Kilimanjaro Express Company after being satisfied that the service provider has continued to violate the law deliberately.