Exclusion of reequipped minibuses will hamper activity of municipal public transport, say local authorities

The situation in public transport in the municipality of Chisinau becomes critical because the draft budget law for 2008 does not envisions purchases of buses and trolleybuses. The state of affairs has worsened after the Government decided to exclude the reequipped minibuses from the public transport, the deputy mayor of Chisinau Mihai Furtuna said on November 12. According to Furtuna, the removal of another 500 reequipped minibuses or minibuses with the expired working life by December 31, 2007 obliges the municipality to take attitude on the given Government Decision. Otherwise, he says, the municipality will face rather serious problems in the area of public transport. Chisinau Mayor General Dorin Chirtoaca said that this problem should be widely publicized because the situation in public transport will get even worse from January 1, 2008. Veaceslav Tarna, head of the General Transport and Communication Ways Division, said that during the autumn technical inspection, the owners of over 500 minibuses were informed that they will have to withdraw the means of transport from circulation. According to Tarna, since the Government Decision took effect, in the second half of 2006, and until present, the minibus owners did not hurry to change the reequip minibuses with new or not reequipped means of transport because they hoped that the Government will cancel its decision. Yet, in the first half of this year, the 500 excluded minibuses were replaced with about 150 not reequipped minibuses. Until present, the City Hall has issued authorizations for three buses with average capacity that now work on route No.165 in Chisinau. According to Tarna, another 30 similar buses will be brought into the country in the near future. Tarna also said that the replacement of reequipped minibuses with buses of average capacity, which provide more places for passengers than the minibuses, will make the circulation in the municipality more efficient. About 1,980 minibuses worked along routes in the municipality of Chisinau in the second half of 2006. Currently, there are 1,650 minibuses and their number will decrease down to 1,150 by this yearend.