Freeman Mbowe

The government plans to carry out a feasibility study to determine whether or not to bring back night travel for upcountry buses, Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Pereira Silima told the NationalAssembly yesterday.

Responding to a question by Freeman Mbowe (Chadema) the deputy minister said the study aims at establishing whether the shortfalls that led to the ban of night travel on the routes were addressed by the government.

“There are security issues and accidents…as government we need to be sure of security of passengers,” he said.

Mbowe had advised the government to consider reinstating overnight travel to enable a continuous movement of people after improvement of highways.

Meanwhile renovation of Kasesya Immigration Centre buildings in Rukwa region is expected to cost 97.1m/- upon completion, Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Pereira Silima told the NationalAssembly yesterday.

He was responding to a basic question by Special seats MP, Abai Nyabakari (Chadema) who wanted to know among other things, how much the government will spend to renovate the dilapidated buildings.

The deputy minister said his ministry had discussions with the Tanzania Building Agency (TBA) - Rukwa branch which said 97,177,514/- was needed amount to execute the project. “The ministry understands that immigration staffs deployed at Kasesya are working and living in crude buildings that are likely to put their lives at risk,” he said.