14:04, 21 ноября 2025, Bishkek - 24-kg.com news agency , Saliya KHUROVA
President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Masato Kanda, during an official visit to Kyrgyzstan, met with Bishkek Deputy Mayor Ramiz Aliev and visited electric bus depot No. 2. The press service of the City Hall reported.
The purpose of the visit was to review the technical capabilities and infrastructure of the electric buses acquired under Urban Transport Electrification project.
During the visit, Talant Kaparov, Director of the Bishkek City Transport Enterprise, provided detailed information about the project, its main components, and its implementation progress. The delegation was shown photos of depot construction stages, a 3D animation of Pilot Green Corridor, and a training simulation for electric bus drivers.
Previously, in June 2024, the municipality proposed transferring 100 trolleybuses to Osh. In Bishkek, the overhead contact network was dismantled, raising concerns among some residents. On August 29, the Bishkek City Council approved the transfer of the vehicles. Citizens filed a lawsuit against the Council’s decision, but the court upheld the dismantling as lawful. By early April 2025, two electric buses arrived in Bishkek, with another 118 delivered in May.
The ADB clarified that it was not involved in the decision to fully replace trolleybuses with electric buses. There was no agreement between the Bishkek municipality and the ADB to replace all trolleybuses. According to Joonho Hwang, Director of the Energy Sector for East, Central, and West Asia at the ADB, the original project planned to replace 95 diesel buses and only 25 trolleybuses.