OP Environment provides 137 eco-friendly vehicles for public transport in Sofia

Three new agreements for the delivery of eco-friendly vehicles for the city of Sofia were signed today by The Minister of Environment and Water Mr. Neno Dimov , the acting Mayor of Sofia Municipality Mrs. Irina Savina and the Executive Directors of Sofia Electric Transport EAD and Sofia Auto Transport EAD – Mr. Evgeniy Ganchev and Mr. Slav Monov. The prjects will improve significantly the air quality in the municipality.
The total amount f the investment is BGN 261.4 million and the Operational Program Environment 2014-2020 is providing a grant of BGN 218 million. With the implementation of the projects, a total of 137 electric vehicles will be delivered for the purposes of the municipality public transport. It is expected that the use of modern green urban transport will reduce the amount of fine particulate matter by 4.81 tonnes per year.

The activities of the first project envisage the delivery of 25 new low-floor articulated trams, which will be managed by Capital Electrotransport EAD and will cover the existing tram route of trams 4, 5 and 18. Under the second contract with Metropolitan Electrotransport EAD, 30 new low-floor trolleybuses will be purchased. The will replace the outdated vehicles. In order to ensure their normal operation, it is foreseen that 3 rectification stations shall be modernized. They are the main unit of the power supply system of the metropolitan electric transport. The project will also deliver 30 new electric buses.

To ensure the normal operation of the new vehicles the construction of new transformer stations is planned. New bus lines will also be constructed in order to replace the existing bus routes. Electric buses will use state-of-the-art ultra-fast capacitors based on ultra-capacitors. 10 charging stations will be built and located at the start and end stations and at the service depots.