Selam Bus Line Share Company (Selam Bus Line S.C.) is one of the largest long distance bus companies in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. It was founded in 1996 by the

Tigray Development Association Tigray may refer to: * Tigray Region, a region of Ethiopia * Tigray Province, a province of Ethiopia until 1995 * Tigrayan-Tigrinya people (disambiguation) ** Tigrayans, an ethnographic group in Ethiopia ** Tigrinya people, an ethnographic group ...

(TDA) to address the nationwide need for public transportation. The firm commenced operations on 9 April 1996 with a fleet of 25 IVECO buses. Selam Bus Line currently provides service to more than 17 cities in Ethiopia.

Overview

In an effort to increase market share, the firm sold 6,000 shares in October 2006 through Wegagen Bank and its main office based in Mek'ele. They had a par value of 5,000 birr. Shares worth six million birr were sold to 700 new shareholders."Selam Bus changes course to tour operations"
''Capital'', Ethiopia website (accessed April 17, 2009) In November 2008, the company announced it would move from general public transportation to providing tourist transportation services. It would do this by buying 14

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conte ...

buses at a cost of 1.6 million birr, each with a body manufactured by a Brazilian company,

Marcopolo S.A. Marcopolo S.A. () is a Brazilian bus, coach and rail manufacturer, founded on 6 August 1949 in the southern Brazilian city of Caxias do Sul, state of Rio Grande do Sul. The company manufactures the bodies for a whole range of coaches, e.g. microbu ...

; Selam Bus Lines has plans to buy 70 more buses. The luxury tourist routes will run between

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

and the Ethiopian cities of Mek'ele,

Bahir Dar Bahir Dar ( amh, ባሕር ዳር, 3=sea shore) is the capital city of Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Bahir Dar is one of the leading tourist destinations in Ethiopia, with a variety of attractions in the nearby Lake Tana and Blue Nile river. The ci ...

, Gondar,

Dire Dawa Dire Dawa ( am, ድሬዳዋ, om, Dirree Dhawaa, 3=Place of Remedy; so, Diridhaba, meaning "where Dir hit his spear into the ground" or "The true Dir", ar, ديري داوا,) is a city in eastern Ethiopia near the Oromia and Somali Re ...

Harar Harar ( amh, ሐረር; Harari: ሀረር; om, Adare Biyyo; so, Herer; ar, هرر) known historically by the indigenous as Gey (Harari: ጌይ ''Gēy'', ) is a walled city in eastern Ethiopia. It is also known in Arabic as the City of Saint ...

Dessie Dessiè City which is politically oppressed by the past Ethiopian government systems due to the fact that most of the population follow Islamic religion. Dessie ( am, ደሴ, Däse; also spelled Dese or Dessye) is a town in north-central Ethiopia ...

and Awasa."Dispatch lines"
, Selam Bus Line website (accessed 17 April 2009) They also have buses to

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

via Awasa and Moyale.

References

Transport in Addis Ababa Companies based in Addis Ababa Transport companies established in 1996 1996 establishments in Ethiopia Bus companies of Ethiopia {{Ethiopia-stub

Overview

See also

References