First trolleybus assembled in Chisinau will run on route 21

The first trolleybus assembled in Chisinau, in collaboration with the Belkomunmash company from Minsk, Belarus, will run on route 21 beginning tomorrow, July 18. According to the workers of the Chisinau Electric Transport Network (RTEC), the assembling of the trolleybus took seven days, Info-Prim Neo reports. Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca declared at the presentation event that the success of the project of refurbishing electric transport in the city was achieved thanks to the trust showed by the citizens, to the reforms started in 2007. These allowed the City Hall to contract investments from the European Investment Bank and to sign a bilateral partnership with the Minsk City Hall on March 18, 2011. “If last year, when we presented the new trolleybuses brought from Belarus, I said I had 102 children, today I already have 107 and until the end of the year I hope there will be 112 and this is only the beginning”, said Chirtoaca. According to the Mayor, July 17 is a day of double significance for the city. It marks 576 years since Chisinau’s first documentary attestation and it’s the day when the first trolleybus assembled in Chisinau was presented. EU delegate in Moldova Dirk Schuebel declared that the idea to support the project “Development of public transport in Chisinau” was one of the best pieces of collaboration between the EU and the Eastern Partnership. The Licensing Chamber of Moldova confirmed RTEC’s right to assemble and to supply trolleybuses on the domestic market. Gheroghe Morgoci, general director of RTEC, said that the first trolleybus assembled in Moldova was a victory that had been achieved in spite of raider attacks. “We worked for the reconstruction of the whole assembling process in order to create work conditions similar to those in Belarus. We have much work ahead of us as only 15% of the assembling is done in Chisinau”, added Morgoci. The presentation of the first trolleybus assembled in Chisinau was honored by the presence of maestro Eugeniu Doga, who said this was the real proof that we were capable of great things. “I’m sure that Beethoven wrote better music, but we still listen to the one that lauds our city”, said Eugen Doga. The trolleybuses assembled in Chisinau cost €135,000, that is €10,000 less than the ones the ones assembled in Minsk.