The first consignment of buses assembled in Turkey arrived in Tajikistan yesterday.

Tajikistan has purchased 40 Isuzu buses assembled in Turkey for Dushanbe and they have moved to Tajikistan through the territories of Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.  The buses were reportedly moving from Turkey to Tajikistan twelve days. 

The Dushanbe administration gave a news conference on this subject yesterday evening.   

“The buses will enter into service on April 15,” Deputy Dushanbe Mayor, Qurbon Saidzoda, told reporters.  

On April 15, the buses will carry passengers free of charge, he said.

An agreement on purchase of the buses was reportedly concluded with Anadolu Isuzu Automotive Industry & Trading A.Ş. on March 23, 2017.

A total amount of the agreement is 2,428,600 euros that means that each of the buses cost Tajikistan at 85,715 euros.

The new buses will run along routes ## 1 and 3.  The fare will remain the same – 1.00 somoni.   

The electronic payment system will be introduced in these buses in two months, the deputy mayor added. 

Tajikistan plans to purchase 24 more Anadolu Isuzu buses from Turkey in the summer.

Recall, Dushanbe authorities intend to remove fixed-route minivans from the city streets in the first half of 2017.

They are expected to replace them with buses and trolleybuses; private taxies will also remain in the city.

According to Dushanbenaqliyotkhizmatrason (public transport service), 3,616 minivans are currently running in the city.  2,973 of them are working contractually and the remaining 643 belong to unitary municipal enterprises.

Meanwhile, only 153 of 417 buses and 72 of 116 trolleybuses existing in Dushanbe are currently running in the city. 

Anadolu Isuzu (officially Anadolu Isuzu Automotive Industry & Trading A.Ş.) is an automobile manufacturing company headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey and a joint venture between Anadolu Group from Turkey, and Isuzu Motors and Itochu Co. from Japan.  Its main fields of operation are the production and marketing of light duty trucks and midibuses.  Since the establishment of the company in 1984, more than 80,000 commercial vehicles have been produced in accordance with the Isuzu Motors license agreement.  Anadolu Isuzu is the first Turkish-Japanese joint venture in the automotive sector.

In 1999 Anadolu Isuzu has moved to the new Gebze Şekerpınar facilities, in the Cayırova district of Kocaeli Province. The new facilities were established over a land of 230.000 m2 where the company employs nearly 750 people. The facilities include two separate plants for truck and bus manufacturing. The midibus manufacturing plant alone covers an area of 21.750 m2 and has a production capacity of 4000 midibuses per year.

Anadolu Isuzu is considered one of the leading medium-sized bus and coach manufacturing companies in Europe.