Casablanca’s Public Transit Woes: 700 New Buses Delayed, Used Vehicles Considered

The residents of the different districts of Casablanca have, to date, no information on the 700 brand new buses promised by the elected members of the Justice and Development Party (PJD), in charge of the city hall of the metropolis. As for the management of the transitional phase of public transportation, entrusted to M’dina Bus, it has faced enormous criticism.

In order to improve the situation, the Casablanca city hall has signed a contract with the Spanish company, Irizar, in charge of assembling 200 buses. This company announced, in a press release, the realization of this project, in its production unit in Skhirat. The vehicles are still awaited, while 257 buses are blocked at the port of Casablanca for administrative formalities.

Another version of this file has spread in the Italian media. In an article published on Sunday, February 9, the Italian daily Il Messaggero claims that in the batch of buses blocked at the port of Casablanca, at least 70 come from Tel Aviv, Israel, and should be assigned to the urban transportation of Rome (ATAC). Once in Rome, it turned out that these buses are ten years old, and cannot be accepted in their current state, due to the pollution of the city. A scandal that has also attracted the attention of the sages of the Italian Court of Auditors.

For its part, in order to shed light on this affair, Le360 claims to have tried in vain to contact the mayor of the city and his deputy, Abdessamad Haikar. On her side, the president of the ECI, Imane Sabir, without giving more details, brushed aside these revelations from the Italian newspaper.