One of the biggest bets that will be made to improve the connectivity and safety conditions of passengers in the Metropolitan Area of San Salvador will be to replace with 1,500 units the nearly 900 buses that, this year, are ending their useful life.
To this end, with 65 votes, the deputies authorized the Executive Branch, through the Ministry of Finance, to sign a loan with the Chinese company Yutong, for an amount of $179,577,857.00.
This company, founded in 1963, is a specialist in the construction of bodies for automobiles and minibuses for urban and interurban use.
The vehicles to be purchased are environmentally friendly, have GPS and electronic payment systems. In addition, they have video surveillance cameras that are connected to the 911 System of the National Civil Police, to guarantee the safety of the population.
The resources to renew this vehicle fleet were managed within the framework of the Special Law for the Contracting of Public Works and Essential Services with Financing Included, approved in November 2022.
“Two of the main reasons why the Legislative Assembly is supporting this important initiative is because 70% of the population uses this resource. For many years, the service (in El Salvador) has been deplorable; We need a change now,” said deputy Edgardo Mulato.
The legislators explained that public transportation entrepreneurs will be able to access the units through conditions that will be established by the authorities.
Credit details
The bidding process to make this purchase was free and transparent, since the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) received various offers, such as from Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, but it was the one from China that had the best conditions. presented.
The annual interest rate is 6.5%, with a six-month grace period and within a period of 96 months and would be paid in up to eight years.
In addition to this loan, on April 22, during the 153rd plenary session, the deputies approved the compensation that transporters receive in exchange for maintaining rates.
On that occasion, 64 parliamentarians voted to extend the Transitional Law for the Stabilization of Rates for the Collective and Mass Public Passenger Transportation Service, because said provision expires on April 30.
Units that are about to expire their useful life
There are 9,816 public transport units circulating in the country and of these, 43.87% have a useful life range of between 16 and 20 years. According to the current transportation law, the units have up to 20 years to circulate.
In addition, 27.38% have been useful for between 11 and 15 years; 20.97%, between six and 10 years; and only 7.73%, between 0 to five years of useful life.
In other countries, such as Colombia, they renew fleets of public buses that are between 12 and 15 years old.