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Mwasalat ferries 4.5 million passengers

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Muscat, Jan 8 - Oman’s national transport company Mwasalat ferried more than 4.5 million passengers between January 1 and December 31, 2017 on its Muscat and inter-city routes, a 21-per cent increase from 2016. From the first half of this year, local buses are expected to introduce electronic tickets, bus tracking that allows users to track buses until they arrive and mobile apps. The buses carried on an average 1,000 passengers each day. The number went up to 18,000 on Friday. Forty per cent of the passengers were Omanis.


The Ruwi-Mabela route ferried over 1.6 million passengers, Ruwi-Wadi Kabir (700,000), Ruwi-Amerat (600,000), Al Khoud-Sultan Qaboos University-Burj Al Sahwa (400,000), Ruwi-Muttrah-Al Alam Palace (300,000), Ruwi-Wadi Adei (200,000) and Mabela-South Mabela (82,000).


A total of 4.2 million passengers travelled on Muscat routes, while the number of passengers who travelled to Dubai was 304,340.


Mwasalat signed an agreement for procuring 98 new buses in October 2017, including 33 for inter-city routes and 65 for Muscat city services. This is in addition to the plan to replace a number of long-distance buses.


This month, Mwasalat will receive the first of its 33 new MAN buses equipped with accident prevention systems such as the Emergency Brake Assist (EBA), Lane Guard System (LGS) and Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC).


They will have radars and cameras for determining the speed and distance between two vehicles.


The new buses are expected to start operating from the first quarter of this year.


With the arrival of new buses, new transport lines would be operated inside and outside Muscat Governorate, especially Salalah and Suhar.


Mwasalat has fully switched to electronic payment system for shipping services and long-haul travel in all its offices.


In 2017, the company won two international and local awards — one in UITP Customer Experience category and another for ‘Excellence in Buses’ from International Road Transport Union. It also won a local award under the best government project.


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