The Addis Ababa City Administration today announced the addition of 110 public buses to the state-owned Anbessa City Bus.
At the ceremony held at Meskel Square this morning, it is indicated that the City Administration has invested $16.5 million to purchase the buses. The ceremony is held inline with the today’s (Pagume 4, 2014), which is the 4th day of the 13th month of year 2014 Ethiopian Calendar, that is being celebrated as ‘Service Day’ across Ethiopia.
In the coming three months the Addis Ababa City Administration has planned to bring 250 new buses to improve public transport of the city, according to Mayor of Addis Ababa City, Adanech Abiebie. Anbessa City Bus Enterprise currently transports over 600,000 commuters daily for a relatively cheap price, supported by a subsidy from the Addis Ababa City Administration.
The increase in the number of buses is expected to improve the current severe shortage of transport in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. In the past few years in Addis Ababa, it has been common to observe long lines of people waiting for taxis and buses.
The 13th month of Ethiopia (Pagume) has five days and six days once in after every four years. Today’s date (Pagume 4) is named as ‘service day’ by the Government of Ethiopia, which also associated each of the five days of Pagume with different activities.
In a related development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia celebrated Service Day today (September 9) by delivering services to the diplomatic community.
The Protocol Affairs Director General at the Ministry visited several embassies and foreign organizations this week that had requested a diplomatic ID and made it possible for them to receive the necessary assistance from where they are.
“Mr. Abebe Godebo, the director, stated that the program’s goal is to inform clients about the directorate’s digital service delivery system and its 40 online offerings. As a result, the directorate was able to provide some of the diplomatic communities who had requested this service with around 47 diplomatic IDs today,” the Ministry said in a statement.