Mwasalat posts over 87% jump in bus passengers last year

The Oman National Transport Company - Mwasalat - transported more than 3mn passengers in its buses in 2022 compared to 1.6mn in 2021, an increase of 87.5 per cent.

The increase, Mwasalat said, in the number of passengers on all operating lines ‘is in recognition of the quality of services provided by Mwasalat, as well as the company’s quest to raise awareness among various segments of society about the importance of using public transport in the sultanate’.

The transport company also transported over 221,000 passengers through its ferries in 2022. Last year, more than 8,400 passengers were estimated to have taken the bus on a daily basis, compared with 6,000 in 2021.

‘The total number of training hours for jobseekers at Mwasalat reached 46,552. The percentage of Omanisation in the company is 92.1 and customer satisfaction has reached 92 per cent,’ it stated.

In December 2022, Mwasalat and the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) succeeded in running

a public transport bus powered by biofuel, a first of its kind initiative in Oman.

The Green Bus project is part of an agreement between SQU and Mwasalat under which the SQU research team will be using one of the Mwasalat buses for testing in order to assess the quality of biodiesel in addition to providing technical support, exchanging technical expertise and

implementing a number of related initiatives together with the transporter. The project will contribute to achieving zero carbon neutrality, finding renewable and sustainable sources of energy and support creating opportunities for economic and social growth, besides helping to achieve sustainable development and limiting the consequences of the climate change.