MADAGASCAR: Improving Urban Transport in Greater Antananarivo: Restructuring bus operations and revitalizing passenger rail operations

The Government of Madagascar has embarked on several major urban transport programs in recent years, worth hundreds of millions of dollars. However, these investments tend to be done in isolation of each other, which could undermine their effectiveness. The economic validity of these investments remains to be confirmed under a more solid, evidence-based project appraisal framework. Strong public governance in planning, budgeting and implementation of infrastructure investment is called for, which not only improves fiscal efficiency and sustainability but also stimulates macroeconomic stability and economic growth.

To help inform this process, PPIAF, in collaboration with the World Bank’s Transport Global Practice supported the delivery of a study that helped (i) review the trends of urban transport developments in major cities in Madagascar, (ii) analyze the present and future demand for urban mobility with a focus on Greater Antananarivo, (iii) review the current public infrastructure governance in the urban transport sector, comparing the government’s urban transport programs and other complementary interventions to maximize the synergy among the programs, and (iv) provide high priority policy recommendations.

The analyses helped identify opportunities for addressing the congestion in Antananarivo, which includes optimizing bus lines, implementing a ticketing solution for bus services, structuring of a fleet renewal program, and providing a review and comparison of train service alternatives currently being considered by public authorities.

The analyses also helped identify priority institutional reforms and interventions in the urban transport sector, which include macro, sectoral, and project-level recommendations for client action. In each of the study focus areas, opportunities for private sector participation (PSP) were also identified and analyzed. Key PSP recommendations include:

• A PPP contract with public payment or a management and maintenance contract with payment by bus operators for bus station projects.

• A fund for the development of the fleet renewal program and contracts concession between bus operators and public authorities for the operation of the bus fleet.

• A PPP contract with public payment or a management and maintenance contract with payment by bus operators for the ticketing system implementation project.

• A management and operation contract or a net cost contract for the urban rail project.