The terminal worth 2b Br will serve 25,000 people an hour
O Bon Voyage Architects & Engineers Consultant, a local consultancy firm, hands over the design of Megenagna Intra-City Public Transport Terminal, which was contracted for 3.38 million Br.
To be situated in wereda 08 of Yeka District, the terminal will be constructed by the Addis Abeba City Administration for an estimated of two billion Birr investment. The terminal is expected to host 25,000 passengers an hour. The Addis Abeba University’s (AAU) Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction & City Development (EIABC) has reviewed the submitted design.
To hire a consultant for the project, the Authority floated a tender in March 2017. And O Bon Voyage, a company which has been in the business for the past eight years in designing buildings, drainage designs, and geotechnical investigations, won the bid. The company has previously designed the three major hospitals of Addis Ababa City Administration and drainage masterplans for Bishoftu and Burayu towns.
O Bon Voyage took the project to deliver the design within half a year period after the award of the contract. However, it was delayed for an additional eight months.
Nathanael Challa, acting head of Pedestrian & Public Transport Management Division at the Authority, attributes the delay for not having a similar kind of project in the country previously.
“The design and the review took much time as there was an absence of prior experience in a similar project,” he told Fortune.
The terminal will be the first of its kind to Addis and is expected to host commuters who use all sorts of public transportation, such as the Addis Abeba Light Rail Transit, buses, mid-buses, mini-bus, taxis, and meter taxis. The construction is expected to commence by September 2018 and be completed in two years after the commencement of construction.
“The area has high congestion as it serves a sizable number of vehicles and commuters a day,” said Solomon Kidane (PhD), head of Addis Abeba Transport Authority. “The terminal will be very helpful in addressing this problem in addition to playing a significant role in reducing traffic accidents.”
During the past fiscal year, about 8,435 Code 01 and Code 03 taxis, 230 higher buses, 222 Qitqit, 230 public buses, 459 Anbessa buses, 118 Sheger buses, 53 Alliance buses, and 22 trains had served the commuters of Addis Abeba on a daily basis.
The terminal is going to lie on an 11,790sqm plot of land and will have a basement, ground, and six storeys. It will also accommodate cafeteria, restaurant, and shops. Moreover, it will have vehicle parking floor, offices, meeting halls, the terminal’s administration offices, a waiting area, toilets, garden on each floor and a recreational centre on the top floor.
Ramps, escalators, ventilators, as well as digitalised screens to show route and passengers information are also the additional features that are included in the design.
At the moment, the geotechnical (soil) investigation is underway by the Ethiopian Construction Design & Supervision Corporation and the Authority is preparing pre-qualification documents to hire a construction company for the project, according to Nathanael.
Fekadu Gurmessa (PhD), a lecturer of Transport Geography at AAU for the past three decades, acclaims the design of the terminal. However, he suggests that the terminal should be used for cross-country buses as well to ease the hassles travellers face.
“Side by side, the city needs to make drivers leave their cars at the gates of the city and use public transport,” he said. “This will significantly reduce jams in the city.”