Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/.  On April 2, Prime Minister L.Oyun-Erdene became acquainted with the operations of the companies engaged in public transportation services in Ulaanbaatar city and gave orders to corresponding officials regarding the pressing issues and COVID-19 safety precautions. 

Statistics show that there are a total of 1,822 vehicles of public transport services, including 1,148 buses, 48 trolleybuses, 17 stretch buses, 46 mid-sized buses, and 59 mini-sized buses, and 503 taxis, registered in the database of public transportation of Ulaanbaatar, and 960 of them are operating daily along the public transport routes. 

PM Oyun-Erdene highlighted that as the risk of coronavirus spreading on public transport remains high, strict sterilization and disinfection measures must be adhered to in public vehicles until the vaccination program is completed.

He ordered state-owned enterprises to deploy their buses for public transportation starting April 5, Monday, during peak traffic periods of the day to improve the accessibility of public transport services and help allowing social distancing inside buses. “However, these measures should be taken without imposing an additional financial burden on the companies,” the PM noted. 

During today’s working trip to the public transportation companies, B.Odsuren, Ulaanbaatar city’s Mayor Deputy introduced about the indispensable and immediate need to update vehicles of public transportation since over 60 percent of total vehicles traveling on road are more than 10 years old. According to officials of Ulaanbaatar city, 45 percent of 524 trolleybuses are to be eliminated from public transport services this year due to the retirement age set for the vehicles, and 247 of them are vehicles of Ulaanbaatar city-owned companies. 

At the end of his trip, PM Oyun-Erdene gave an order to the Ministry of Road and Transport Development and Ulaanbaatar city departments and companies responsible for the public transport management and operations to conduct a general study and report back to the cabinet within 30 days. 

Minister of Road and Transport L.Khaltar, Minister of Finance B.Javkhlan, and Mayor of Ulaanbaatar city D.Sumiyabazar were also charged to evaluate possibilities to make a comprehensive update to the public transport vehicles and have a unified system for public transport management. 

In addition, the Prime Minister highlighted that the MNT 356 billion of the total payment collected from Oyu Tolgoi LLC under the Mongolian Tax Authority’s Tax Act has been transferred to the capital city’s budget and the money could be invested for the public transport reforms.