Harare residents are likely to pay twice a trip to the Central Business District (CBD) as the council chases away commuter omnibuses from the city centre replacing them with shuttles.
The Harare City Council is expected to introduce shuttles to replace combis in a move to de-congest the CBD under the Operation Restore Order.
“The effective date of operation 21st February, 2018. No combis in the CBD. Combis will terminate their journeys at the new peripheral ranks Seke Road and Dieppe Road (Coca-cola) and Coventry and Rotten Row” reads the City of Harare notice.
“Shuttle service into and out of the CBD will be provided by Convectional buses (big buses) that will follow specific routes.”
Response to the move by the city fathers among the combi drivers and passengers has been negative.
Residents fear that paying an extra fee when travelling in and out of the CBD will further make a damage to the already constrained budgets of citizens who are living below the poverty datum line.
Kombi operators are also complaining that the drivers of the most used transport in Zimbabwe’s urban areas were not consulted.
It is still not yet clear how much the shuttles will be costing to transport passengers in and out of Harare’s CBD, while speculations have ranged from 30 – 50 cents per trip.
Harare’s CBD has been littered with Kombis, which were always in clashes with the Police and Council employees over pick up and dropping places.
The capital city’s Operation Restore Order has also seen vendors being chased out of the CBD.