In 2022, Mohamed Hamissi, Director for the Environment, Local Climate-Air-Energy Planning, Transport and Mobility for Petite Terre district council won a European Talent in Mobility award for his role in Caribus, an ambitious project to transform mobility in Mayotte.
“It’s been two years since the European Talent in Mobility Awards jury recognised my work on Caribus, the largest mobility project in the history of mobility in Mayotte, thus adding my name to the prestigious list of award-winners.
Winning the 2022 Best project manager award has been a personal source of pride for me and for my island, faced as it is with many challenges. The award has also got me noticed and undoubtedly opened up new opportunities for me!
Receiving the award has made me even more committed to developing sustainable mobility in Mayotte, too: when it comes to transport and mobility, we’re virtually starting from scratch. Setting up public transport is vital if we are to ensure the right to mobility across our 374 square kilometres of territory, where 77% of the population live below the national poverty threshold – five times as many as in Metropolitan France. Cooperation between mobility authorities is also vital to facilitate governance and ensure land-based and maritime transport solutions complement each other.
As Director for the Environment, Local Climate-Air-Energy Planning, Transport and Mobility for Petite Terre, I’m currently coordinating several mobility projects: setting up a multi-modal mobility bundle, developing seven kilometres of safe, comfortable cycle tracks, and installing four charging facilities for electric vehicles.
I wish you all the best for the European Talent in Mobility Awards!”
Find out more about the presentation of the winner in 2022
Mohamed Hamissi is a local authority engineer with an outstanding career. In 10 years, he has become a local go-to person when it comes to public transport and mobility. His audacity and excellent management of the Caribus urban transport project have led to us nominating him as the Best Project Manager. His career demonstrates that he is fully worthy of the confidence we express in him. Mayotte is France’s poorest and most recent department, and faces major challenges. This is especially the case in the field of mobility: the island lacks public passenger transport services, bikes are rarely used, and the market suffers from multiple drawbacks. In April 2010, Mamoudzou council entrusted the task of setting up the Caribus urban collective to Mohamed Hamissi, despite the council not being a transport authority. Mohamed Hamissi took on this project with its many twists and turns, and managed it with brio through to the awarding of works contracts in August 2021. He displayed patience, adaptability, and ingenuity, with events sometimes requiring him to re-examine the goals of the project. Caribus works were commenced on Thursday 10 February 2022. Caribus is a revolution for Mayotte. It is the island’s largest public-sector project for 20 years. 50 young people have been recruited for the works. The 360 urban taxis are being integrated in the Caribus network. Mohamed Hamissi has won his wager: making his mark in the history of Mayotte’s mobility policy. In September 2021 he joined the Petite Terre district council as Director for the Environment, Local Climate/Air/Energy Plan, Transport and Mobility.
