Chinese company says its buses are good

Suppliers of Yaxing buses used by the Metro Mass Transport (MMT) say their buses are of good quality and over 500 of them are in operation in Angola, Sudan and Libyan.

Yaxing Coach Company of China says MMT's claim that the buses are not suitable for conditions in Ghana are not true and it is also not true that all the 400 buses plying several routes in Ghana have broken down.

"This is a ploy to brand the buses as inferior in order to discredit them the manufacturers in the eyes of the Ghanaian public," the company said.

Investigations the Ghana News Agency conducted showed that the yellow buses are still ferrying thousands of people daily in Accra, Sunyani, Takoradi, Kumasi, Cape Coast, Oda, Swedru and Tema.

The Managing Director of MMT, Mr Hink Visschers, had claimed Yaxing buses had problems with the clutches, the engine and the electrical system and that these are not suitable for conditions in Ghana.

He said the problem was compounded by the supplier's lack of after sales service and this leads to constant breakdown of the buses. buses but because of the rumpus they have been barred since

2007 from entering any MMT facility in the country. Investigations showed that the Chinese and the MMT management worked cordially until Mr Visschers was appointed in 2005 together with a new management after which he imported 50 Neoplan VDL buses.

"The Chinese engineers were from this point prevented from having access to the yard, touching the Yaxing buses and supervising work at the MMT workshops and even participating in the maintenance of the buses,"

a mechanic said. They were therefore unable to service the broken down buses and to provide routine maintenance as contained in two contracts signed between the Ministry of Transport and the Chinese company in 2003 and 2005. As a result some of the buses have been grounded and others cannibalised to service other buses without the knowledge and input of the Chinese engineers.

team to Ghana in 2008 to conduct investigations. It presented a nine-page report to the Ministry of Transport and the report said tap water instead of coolant was being used to fill the radiators that often lead to rust, overheating and blockage of the system. The team also found that sub-standard parts that were not bought from the manufacturers were used on the buses. These include fuel filters, oil filters and water separators.

Also, unauthorised modifications to engines and removal of parts of the buses as well as improper operation of the buses, resulting in damaging of the pedals and the clutch were widespread.

Between 2004 and 2007, the government of Ghana took delivery of a total of 400 Yaxing buses to improve public transportation in the country.