Over 60% of Bishoftu’s Public Buses back in Garage in less than a year

ESAT News    August 7, 2013

 City and cross country busses that have been assembled by Bishoftu Automotive Industry (BOI), part of the Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC), have been returned back for repair in less than year of their production. The buses have been manufactured with materials that are imported from aboard with a high cost of foreign currency. Over half of the vehicles parts have been produced locally; however, the parts that have been imported from abroad have failed.  Shambel Gebremedhin Hailu, Deputy Manager and Operation Head of BOI, said Bishoftu has so far produced over 500 city buses and three hundred of these buses have stopped functioning few months after they gave service. Of the six public buses that have been allotted for Dessie, Gonder and Adama, four have still been parked in garage for maintenance.

Gebremedhin said the main focus of Bishoftu has not been with the technical but with the human resource aspect “Bishoftu started work without full materials and human resources”.  Sources have said that the import of spare parts has been bare to corruption. Bishoftu has so far been unable to repair the buses except importing the full parts of the vehicles and reassemble them again.

This year alone, Bishoftu has produced and sold over 100 high-tech busses that have a carrying capacity of over 60 passengers. However, over half of these buses have been out of service. A week after the residents of Dessie town took the delivery of the busses in public celebrations; they have been informed that the buses were inoperable.

The motors of Bishoftu’s vehicles have been bought from a Chinese company. According to Metec’s Website, the Corporation which is led by General Kinfe Dagnew, Bishoftu has so far provided 500 city buses to Addis Ababa, and more than 75 buses to Bahirdar, Hawassa, Bishoftu ,Jijigga, other cities and also to governmental enterprises.