NMS to Restrict Matatus From Nairobi CBD, Opens New Termini

Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) has announced plans to relocate Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) from the Central Business District before the end of April. Matatus with stages in town are set to be relocated to different termini and routes.

The first matatus to be affected will be those plying Ngong, Lang’ata and Argwings Kodhek roads as well as long distance vehicles from Mt. Kenya. The Green Park, Desai and Park Road termini will be opened as part of efforts to decongest the city.

“The change we are making in this city in terms of traffic to decongest it has been done in other parts of the world and it must be done in Kenya too. We must take the lead in East Africa to show that we are able to manage our public transport.” said NMS Transport and Public Works Director, Michael Ochieng.

The Ksh 250 million Green Park terminal is 98% complete while terminals for the long distance PSVs coming from Mt. Kenya, Tea Room and Accra Road, were completed more than a year ago. The two terminals can hold upto 160 vehicles at once and process up to 600 vehicles per hour.

GreenPark on the other hand has the capacity to accommodate between 300 to 350 vehicles at once, process about 1,000 PSVs per hour and up to 20,000 per day. The terminal will serve as pick and drop off points for matatus from Ngong, Karen, Rongai, Kikuyu, Dagoretti, Kawangware, Kibra, Highrise, Ngumo, Langata, Nairobi West, Makadara, Kaberia, Satellite and Kiserian.

This means that all matatus with their termini in town will move back to GreenPark. Other termini include Fig Tree, Muthurwa and Globe Roundabout.

The terminals will be digitally controlled with vehicles electronically captured on a billboard that will show its number plate and route.

At Green Park, only three matatus per SACCO are allowed at a time and a maximum of 20 minutes to drop off and pick passengers Traffic marshals will be deployed to maintain law and order.