The contract for the acquisition of 700 new buses was canceled on Thursday, November 14, 2019, due to the excessive cost of the price proposals. The Intercommunal Cooperation Establishment (ECI) now in charge of the file wants to entrust it to Alsa Al Baïda, a subsidiary of Alsa Maroc.
The Spanish company Alsa is gradually establishing itself in Morocco. It now controls several major cities including Casablanca and Rabat, and transports some 405 million passengers per year.
The National Transport and Logistics Company (SNTL) has put into service since last Friday the new bus station in Tangier. An impressive and modern infrastructure that already accommodates all passenger traffic, coaches and grand taxis from the old station.
Urban public transport by bus will be managed by the company, Alsa Maroc, on the territory of the 18 municipalities of Greater Casablanca. It signed a delegation of management contract on Thursday with the Intercommunal Cooperation Establishment (ECI) and Al Baïda.
The controversy sparked by the discriminatory service note displayed by the Compagnie de Transports au Maroc (CTM) agency in Rabat towards illegal migrants continues to shock and provoke reactions. In a statement, the National Human Rights Council expressed its concern.
In response to the public transport crisis currently affecting the city of Casablanca, the Minister of the Interior, Abdelouafi Laftit, indicated that the situation requires the adoption of urgent resolutions without waiting for the arrival of the new buses. Thus, he announced that the city will be equipped with 400 buses at the beginning of next year.
No restrictions have been imposed on Sub-Saharan nationals wishing to travel through Morocco. This is at least what the Moroccan Transport Company (CTM) claims.
The bus company, Karama bus, was fined 100 million dirhams by the Kénitra City Hall. It is accused of numerous dysfunctions in the management of public transportation, causing inconvenience to the city’s citizens.
The Spanish Alsa is the new operator of the bus network in Casablanca. The new concessionaire will face several challenges.
Three young people from Salé were sentenced last Thursday to eight months in prison for calling on social networks to damage the new buses in the capital, operated by the Alsa company, by tagging "Salé", the name of the city, instead of "Rabat".
Alsa will soon make its entry into the urban landscape of the economic capital. The Spanish transport company has indeed won the tender for the delegated management of the urban transport service in Casablanca.
The verdict has been handed down. The man prosecuted by the justice system for having ransacked the Alsa bus was sentenced to three years of firm imprisonment. The authorities intend to deal with the utmost firmness with all those who will be guilty of acts of vandalism and destruction on the new buses put into service.