Ministry of Transport starts talking about the need to renew the bus fleet in Baku

The purchase of additional buses  is required to update and meet the needs of passengers in Baku, said Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov  at the meeting  on February 2  of  the Organizing Committee for the first European Games; the Minister virtually controls a private bus transport in the capital.

Upgrading the bus fleet in Baku started  since 2008, when over 1,500 buses and minibuses  were eliminated.  They were replaced by new buses, some of which (over 200 units) were purchased by the Ministry of Transport form  the state budget.  The process was not transparent and  it is not known who uses the buses.  There are several bus enterprises in Baku  which are in subordination  of the State Company "Baki Sernishin Neqliyyati" (“Baku city transport”.)   The leader in bus passenger  carriages is transport company "Transgate", which belongs to the family of the Minister of Transport.

The Ministry of Transport  since 2009 has been talking about plans to  pass to the card system fare on buses in Baku. But so far, the bus fare is paid in cash to the driver, who works on a daily planning system, and receives little money. The buses inside most  buses purchased in 2008-2009  are shabby, as drivers have to  take as many passengers  as possible  to  collect money by the end of the day,  and earn a living. This attitude leads to serious traffic accidents with fatalities.

Supporting the idea of ​​updating the bus fleet, President Ilham Aliyev said at the meeting  "we will consider this issue separately."

According to the Ministry of Transport, in 2012,  there were 200 large buses  on the route, and  250 medium capacity buses.  Since the beginning of 2013 in Baku  there work 2321 buses. 08B