The European Bank has provided millions of euros for the modernization of Mykolaiv trolleybuses

Mykolaiv has received a million-dollar grant to modernize the city's public transportation. The deputies plan to appeal to the Government for a tax exemption.

The decision was made at a meeting of the budget committee of the Mykolaiv City Council.

The deputies proposed to consider a draft decision on the provision of grant funds to the municipal enterprise Mykolaivelectrotrans by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The funds will be used to purchase 9 autonomous trolleybuses.

According to the budget committee, the project should be supported by the city council. It is also planned to apply to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for VAT exemption.

One of the city council members, Dmytro Sichko, noted that one trolleybus would cost 433 thousand euros. Other deputies also noted that this was too much, almost half a million euros per unit.

Fedir Panchenko emphasized that the city had already received such trolleybuses and they cost about 250 thousand euros and asked for an explanation of the price.

Deputy Head of the Transport Department Oleh Kuksa replied that these are the same trolleybuses that the city has already received, and the funds will not be returned from the budget, because these are grant funds and no taxes will be paid.

According to Tetyana Shulichenko, director of the city council's economic development department, this price is specified in the documents.

The decision was made. The draft decision will be submitted to the session of the Mykolaiv City Council to be held on November 28.

Mykolaiv also plans to modernize its transportation infrastructure. It was decided to raise more than a billion hryvnias for the purchase of new railcars. The project was initiated by the city utility Mykolaivelectrotrans. The project is planned to be implemented within 56 months.

In addition, they decided to build charging stations for urban electric vehicles. More than seven million hryvnias were allocated from the budget for this purpose.

The first trolleybus with an autonomous range of up to 20 kilometers was tested in May 2024. In June, five such autonomous trolleybuses were put on the road.

In August, Mykolaiv received three more such trolleybuses, which, among other things, were equipped with air conditioning and devices for transporting people in wheelchairs. The project is being implemented by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with the support of the Danish government. As part of this project, the city will receive 31 new trolleybuses with an autonomous range of up to 20 kilometers.

Анна Бальчінос