Tbilisi to Have New Buses by September

TBILISI – From this September Tbilisi will receive 143 new city busses by no later than September. The relevant agreement was signed today between Tbilisi City Hall and Man Truck and Bus AG Company.

According to the agreement, all the buses will be added to the Tbilisi auto park over a seven month period, started from September. They will be adapted for people with disabilities and run on compressed natural gas (CNG), meaning they are more energy efficient, produce reduced vehicle emissions and are cheaper to operate than diesel-equivalent buses.

“We never had these kinds of buses before. It is the first step to give the city a European type of public transportation that provides safe and comfortable travel for our citizens,” said Tbilisi Mayor David Narmania.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) provided the financial support for the purchase of the buses. The agreement said the EBRD would grant EUR 27 million (69.6 million GEL) to Georgia for introducing new buses this year, while the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership promised to grant EURO 7 million (18 million GEL) to Georgia to purchase CNG-operated buses.

Discussions about overvaluing Tbilisi’s public bus fleet started in December 2015 when the EBRD and Tbilisi City Hall announced that EUR 30 million (77.4 million GEL) would be spent on purchasing 150 new buses for the city.

By Eka Karsaulidze