Dodoma City
Dodoma is one of the administrative regions in Tanzania, which is located in the center of Tanzania (heartland). Dodoma is now one among five cities, though Dodoma was approved to be a city in 2018 by The President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Hon. John Pombe Magufuli.
Dodoma is the capital city of Tanzania and almost all ministries and some government authorities have shifted from Dar es Salaam to this heartland city, which is found at the center of the nation.
Dodoma is also where the national assembly, where all members of parliament meet to discuss national issues and also the cabinet meets in Dodoma. Despite being a center of all political issues in Tanzania, Dodoma is also a beautiful city with attractive scenery and has a lot of areas to visit like vine plantations and the wine-making industry.
Historically, Dodoma was a place where slaves and slave masters took a stopover before continuing their journey to Dar es Salaam and other coastal areas because it was an overland caravan route for transporting slaves from Lake Tanganyika parts to coastal parts of late Tanganyika (currently Tanzania). Earlier in the 1990s, the city was a point on the central line railway that served to transport crops from the western part of Tanzania via the central railway to Dar es Salaam harbor.
According to the population census of 2012, Dodoma had 2,083,588 inhabitants contained in all districts of Dodoma city but recently the population number has been higher due to the high birth rate and low mortality rate in this city. Districts in Dodoma city include Bahi, Dodoma Urban, Dodoma Rural Council, Chamwino, Kongwa, Kondoa, Mpwapwa and Kongwa.
Transportation in Dodoma
In this city, people travel using the railway, roads and air. All these ways serve people to move from Dodoma to other parts of Tanzania and vice versa.
Road Transport: Dodoma connects a lot of regions in Tanzania, so residents have access to different parts of Tanzania by using roads whose main hub is Dodoma. Dodoma is very close to Iringa, Morogoro, Singida and Manyara. Transport within the city, people use public buses and “Daladala” (minibuses, which are used mostly in urban areas). Also “Bajaji” (tuk-tuk) and “bodaboda” (motorcycle) and taxis transport people around town areas quickly.
Railway transport: The Central railway has passed from Kigoma to Dar es Salaam via Dodoma city, thus the people of Dodoma. Recently there are two kinds of trains used to transport people which are ordinary trains that have been used for a while now. Another type of train is the express train that uses only a few stops compared to the ordinary ones that have many stations to stop at.
Air Transport: Dodoma serves as a hub for transporting people to various international airports, including Kilimanjaro International Airport, Julius Nyerere International Airport, and Songwe International Airport. Additionally, the regional airport in Dodoma is where Precision Air and other flights land.
Culture: The indigenous tribes are Gogo, Rangi and Sandawe currently there are many tribes in Dodoma, counting more than 120 tribes by which are distributed in different areas of Dodoma. All have their own way of presenting their culture by using art and cultural dances.
Accommodation: Accommodation in Dodoma city is adequate due to the presence of big hotels and high-quality lodges, as well as guesthouses that serve people of this city. Hotels include the new Dodoma hotel and the Royal village hotel all these are high-standardized hotels where most of the clients are members of parliament and tourists.
Tourism activity in the city: Dodoma is not that advanced in the tourism sector, though there is a lot of potential to do tourism activities in the city. The city has the potential for city tours whereby visitors will opt to either bike or use buses as well as tuk-tuks.
Also, cultural tours may be organized in the city to experience how local people live. Some areas of this city have cultural tourism enterprises, such as Kondoa. There is one cultural tourism enterprise known as the Kondoa-Irangi cultural tourism enterprise. The city has more than 120 different tribes, which gives the city another opportunity to organize cultural tours with varieties.
Visitors also may have a chance to visit the vine plantations (Agro-tourism) in Dodoma, where they will learn a lot about this plantation and how their products (grapes) are used in different ways like fruits and for making wine. Dodoma is the region where local wine from Tanzania is produced and this kind of wine is known as DOMPO so the wine-making industry can be one of the attractions in Tanzania‘s Dodoma to attract tourists so that they can visit this industry and learn the processes of making wine if they wish to taste a flavor of it, it will be good.
People in Dodoma city have got a chance to get all social services ranging from basic services to extra services. The basic ones include hospitals, education, water, and security, among others. Education services are provided from the kindergarten level to the university level in the city. Speaking of universal education, there are two universities in Dodoma city which are the University of Dodoma (UDOM) and Saint Joseph University.
Health services in the city are widely available around all areas of Dodoma city and people are treated by using health insurance and cash payment. National hospital for mental illness is found at Dodoma and it is called Milembe hospital not only that but also Aga khan hospital and Dodoma regional referral hospital and many others, either public or private, are available to ensure health services provision is adequate.
The central police station and many other small police stations are available in the city to ensure the safety and security of both indigenous people and visitors who visit Dodoma for different purposes. With respect to safety issues, Dodoma city has traffic police and traffic lights that function very well to regulate transport issues in the city.
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