The Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) voted in favor of the City Hall’s proposal to buy 100 new buses by this yearend. Also, thirty trolleybuses will be assembled and 18 articulated trolleybuses will be bought from the Riga City Hall, IPN reports.

PAS councilor Alexandr Trubca, who heads the working group that drafted the plan for renewing the public transport in Chisinau, said that only 31 of the 143 buses of the Urban Bus Company have been used for less than ten years. The situation at the Chisinau Electric Transport Company is better as this has 267 new trolleybuses. As to the minibuses, only 142 of the over 700 minibuses are not older than ten years.

The working group determined that the municipality of Chisinau needs 155 buses for the suburban localities and 160 buses for the city.

The buses that will be bought will have a seating capacity of 107 and diesel engine euro 5. A bus of this kind costs €135,000.

Mayor General Ion Ceban voiced hope that the councilors in the future will refrain from politicizing this issue and work will be done to purchase the necessary units of transport. The municipality will raise a foreign loan for the purpose.

At the second stage, there will be bought 150 buses, 70 traditional buses and 20 articulated trolleybuses.