Yellow busses to be replaced with new ones from next year
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Tuesday, October 6
The replacement of old yellow busses with new ones will start from next year.
The Deputy Mayor of Tbilisi, Irakli Lekvinadze, stated that the Mayor’s Office will carry out the project with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
According to the Deputy Mayor, Auto Park will be fully renewed but he remains unsure as to how much time the process will take.
“We have been actively cooperating with the EBRD concerning the public transport for several months. We have support from various state agencies and from next year we will have new public transport in the capital city,” stated Lekvinadze.
The negotiations around the project with the EBRD started at the beginning of 2015.
According to the statement made by the Mayor of Tbilisi, Davit Narmania, which he made in January of 2015, the plan was to have new busses by the time of the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF), which was held in Tbilisi from July 25 to August 1. However, the project was not implemented in time.
“This project is expensive and will take about 5-6 years to fully implement. We need resources and the EBRD will help us to study the field and also to bring cheap resources, or just help us to buy busses with leasing deals,” stated Narmania.
The Mayor’s Office still cannot provide precise information concerning the details of the project.
“We will inform the public of more detailed actions in the near future,” stated Lekvinadze.
The yellow busses and mini busses currently in use were introduced by the former government, as well as a new payment system which allows the use of credit cards.
