Palapye new bus rank to be ready by end of November

Bonte Seepi | Friday November 7, 2014 15:39

The Central District Council Senior Public Relations Officer, Keothaile Tau, confirmed this.

When responding to a questionnaire from Mmegi this week, Tau confirmed that only finishing touches now remain for the bus rank that has been under construction for almost seven months now and will be officially handed over on November 27.

It is expected to be much bigger and better as compared to the old one and has cost a whopping P81,102,57.11

“The new facility has been designed to cater for improved services to both bus, taxi, combi drivers and commuters as compared to the old one that was not designed as such and thus provided minimal services,” said Tau.

Tau also indicated that the new bus rank comprises of new better features that were lacking in the previous bus rank. “The bus rank is expected to be more bigger than the old one. It comprises of bus terminal building with two sets of waiting areas, six offices, one luggage room, two commercial halls, two sets of ablution rooms each having six toilets, two shower rooms and one toilet for the disabled,” explained Tau.

Tau further stated that the new bus rank will have new features such as 40 market stalls, that is, 20 wet stalls and 20 dry stalls, bus and taxi parking areas, drainage works, 0.8km of access road to bituminous standard complete with installation of traffic lights and associated road furniture. He said the bus rank will also have services like water, sewerage and power reticulation networks.

“The bus rank was tendered at P74,794,902.31 for the construction phase and P6,307,254.80 for consultancy supervision phase, and the tender was awarded to Mido Construction (PTY) Ltd which is a 100% citizen-owned company,” confirmed Tau.

Tau further clarified that people are waiting in anticipation for the completion of the bus rank to enjoy the state-of-the-art facilities provided by the new bus rank infrastructure. While some hawkers were happy with the fact that the new rank has stalls, others said they did not want stalls.

“I am very happy about the new bus rank, more especially because it has stalls which will save us from weather conditions like rainfalls and winds even the sunlight because the rank is paved and has shades.

“I personally think the construction of the bus rank will bring developments in Palapye,” explained a hawker, Gobopamang Mapoka.

Mapoka also has no problems with renting the stalls as they did the same at the old rank where they were provided with space to store their merchandise when they knocked off.

However, taxi drivers expressed dismay at the location of the new rank. They said it would be much better if the rank was located in the centre of the village.

“Even though we are happy with the new development which is the rank construction, its location does not favour us as taxi operators.

“We think it could have been located in the centre of the village because we are targeting customers from all over the village, not only people who drop off from buses,” explained the taxis queue marshal, David Tshupelo.