We Did Not Obtain 100 Units of 12-Meter Buses: Khajakyan

Today, Mayor Marutyan announced that he has signed a proposal for the purchase of an additional 100 buses, which is indeed encouraging. He also mentioned the overall enhancement of the bus fleet, which, according to Marutyan, is currently 60% complete, or more specifically, 511 buses.

Since I have consistently spoken about transport issues regardless of the political situation, I would like to share my thoughts concerning these numbers. David Khajakyan, the head of the 'Luys' faction in the Yerevan City Council and a member of the 'Enlightened Armenia' party, wrote on his Facebook page:

1. Of the 511 buses, 100 are newly acquired Gazelles, which may be liked or disliked, but they cannot be integrated into the new transport network designed by wyg, as the timetables would be disrupted, and this has been documented.
2. The loan program obtained from the government (around 25 million euros) failed to yield 100 units of 12-meter buses in one competition. Now, a new competition has been announced, but I believe that if the main fleet will consist of buses already operating in the city that are of Chinese manufacture, it is ineffective to acquire separate 100 units of 12-meter buses that greatly differ in class, price, and maintenance costs. With the same amount of funding, we could have completed the full set of 12-meter buses if the purchase had been made in the same class.
3. The remaining purchase of 311 buses is indeed justified, but this only represents 36% of the required amount. Moreover, considering that these buses have been acquired at the expense of failing to renovate kindergartens, buildings, and roofs, it is difficult to assess this as an exceptional achievement.

Please do not judge harshly; we have been insisting on these same points for three years now.