Johannesburg’s new bus rapid transit (BRT) system took a step nearer completion on Wednesday with the news that the City of Johannesburg has announced two bus manufacturers as suppliers for the project.

The provincial government announced that Scania South Africa would supply and deliver the chassis and engines for 143 BRT buses, while Marcopolo South Africa would supply the bus bodies.

The buses are being supplied for the first phase of the BRT system, which is expected to be operational before the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup kicks off in June.

The contracts, which see the buses being fully imported from Brazil rather than locally manufactured, are estimated to be worth about R391m.

All manufacturers that had submitted a proposal for the contracts had the ability to produce the buses locally however it was decided that the tight deadline – before the Confederations Cup – had made this impossible. All buses in the future, however, will be locally manufactured.

In November, the first prototype station for Johannesburg’s BRT system was unveiled in Joubert Park. All the stations on the BRT network are to be identical.