Chisinau authorities willing to buy 20 new buses

The Chisinau Municipal Council decided Thursday to purchase 20 buses, by public auction. The money is to be requested from the Government. According to the head of accountancy and economic analysis Division Eugenia Ciumac, in compliance with the Plan intended to develop the infrastructure in Chisinau municipality, it is planned to buy 50 units of public transport in 2007. At present, the urban bus fleet has 199 vehicles, of which only 120 units, or 60%, can be used. Another 79 buses have their term of commission expired by over 15 years, while 36 of them have being stationed for over three years. According to data from City Hall, because of the shortage of transport in the last time there was suspended the traffic of buses operating on a number of routes, as nr. 13, nr. 15, nr. 19, nr. 26 and nr. 29. At the same time, the number of vehicles has been reduced on certain bus routes. The last units of transport have been purchased in July last year, when 10 trolleybuses of ЮМЗ make, made in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, were bought. Another 10 trolleybuses of this make were to be brought in September, but the transaction was not performed. The respective units of transport were purchased from the financial resources from fiscal revenues into the municipal and state budgets last year, totalling 100 mln lei. As many as 20 German MAN buses, estimated at 50 mln lei, were bought from this money. About 230 trolleybuses and 100 buses are operating on the routes in Chisinau at present.