New trolleybuses will travel through central Chisinau

The first 20 trolleybuses purchased by the Chisinau City Hall from Minsk, which will get to Chisinau next week, will run via the center of Chisinau, Mayor General Dorin Chirtoaca said in a televised program on the public television channel Moldova 1. He stated that most probably the trolleybuses will travel along route No. 22, Info-Prim Neo reports. The mayor said a final decision will be taken as a result of discussions with the relevant municipal subdivisions. The main criterion in distributing the trolleybuses remains the number of passengers. Most of the passengers travel by trolleybuses running on route No. 22. Dorin Chirtoaca said the 102 trolleybuses will be delivered to Chisinau in four batches and will start to run by the end of July. The €13.7 million for the buses is to be transferred to the Belorussian plant by July. According to the mayor, the Chisinau administration should invest half a billion lei for replacing the old trolleybuses, but the roads must also be repaired so that the units of transport serve longer. “If we invest by 500 million lei in the rehabilitation of roads during five years, in ten years we will have good roads in the municipality of Chisinau,” said Dorin Chirtoaca . €10 million of the €13.7 million that is to be paid for the trolleybuses represents loans provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank at an interest rate of 5% a year. They are repayable in 10 years, with a grace period of two years. Another €3 million was given by the EU as a grant within the Neighborhood Policy Program.