Section one will run from Dartford station to Greenhithe station

The Fastrack Buslink will eventually link new and existing communities between Dartford and Gravesend.

It is aimed at giving people in the area an easy way of travelling to nearby towns for work and providing an alternative to using the car.

The first section will cover a 7km stretch from Dartford to Greenhithe and is due to be completed in Spring 2006.

Housebuilding

Transport minister Charlotte Atkins visited Dartford on Thursday to cut the first sod of the building project.

The scheme is largely funded by the Department for Transport and is linked to the regeneration of the Thameside area of Kent.

Thousands of new homes are to be built in the Thames Gateway in the next few years as part of a major housebuilding programme in the South East announced by John Prescott last year.

The first part of the scheme was approved in 2000 and will run between the railway stations in Dartford and Greenhithe.

It will have stations at Bluewater shopping complex, Darent Valley Hospital, Leigh City Technology College and Dartford town centre.

It will consist of public transport lanes on existing roads, segregated public transport lanes built next to existing roads and special off-road tracks.

'Thought and effort'

Of the 7km it will cover, about 5.5km will be newly-built.

Fastrack buses will have priority over other traffic at all places where the lanes cross existing roads.

A second phase, which would link Dartford and Gravesham to planned future developments in the Thames Gateway, is currently under discussion.

Transport minister Ms Atkins said: "With the regeneration of the Thameside region already well under way, it is good to see that a great deal of thought and effort has gone into ensuring that the right transport infrastructure is put into place."

Dartford MP Howard Stoate said: "It's a very important project for regenerating north Kent, without which I think we would have been in big trouble.

"The government has put �14.5m of its money into this project and I think this shows the confidence we now have in this sort of transport system."