Legislative Reforms in Field of Regular Passenger Transportation in Territory of Republic

"The legislative reforms implemented in the field of regular passenger transportation in the territory of the republic are due to the increase in the efficiency and quality of service and the application of new solutions for the organization of the intra-community route network by communities," the RA Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Armen Simonyan said, presenting in the first reading the package of draft laws on Making Amendments and Addenda to the Law on Road Transportand on Amending the Law on Transport at the RA NA regular sitting on November 24.

It is proposed to establish a new procedure for the organization of intra-community routes service in parallel with the current procedures, which will enable organizations serving intra-community routes to choose not only through a competition, but also through a procurement procedure in accordance with the requirements of the Law on Procurements. The community will be provided with a bus service in accordance with the requirements set out during the procurement process and with the required number of buses, the payment of which will be made for each kilometer of service on the given route.

According to the proposed regulation, the passenger fare paid will be fully paid to the community budget, and the transportation organization will receive from the community the fare set within the framework of the fixed procurement process of its service, regardless of the number of transported passengers.

According to Armen Simonyan, in case of organizing intra-community regular passenger transportation through the procurement process, the community will sign the contract with the operator for a period of 5-10 years, taking into account the year of production of vehicles and the standards.

The Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs Babken Tunyan was interested in why the competitions announced by the communities are not held in the conditions of the enlargement of the communities. Armen Simonyan explained that organizations often do not submit bids because they are not attractive. Therefore, it was proposed to give the authorized body the opportunity to hold the competition of these communities under the package of unified intra-provincial and inter-provincial routes.