Tashkent city plans to purchase 240 buses and establish 16 new routes to improve the public transport system, according to a decision by the standing commission on construction, utilities, water management, ecology, industry, and transport of the Tashkent City Council of People's Deputies dated April 23.
The decision lists several problems in the capital's public transport. Specifically, waiting times for buses during peak hours increase significantly, in some cases reaching 35-40 minutes, causing inconvenience to residents. Also, due to longer intervals on some routes, access to public transport is limited.
Dedicated bus lanes in the city are underdeveloped. Currently, they account for only 18.5% of the city's main roads, negatively affecting the speed of public transport. 753 stops have no structures at all, and another 836 are not equipped with adequate facilities.
The effectiveness of real-time transport monitoring and dispatching systems is also insufficient. As a result, traffic management and rapid decision-making capabilities are limited.
The decision notes that the low share of public transport leads to a large portion of the population using private cars. This, in turn, causes even more traffic congestion in the city.
To address the existing problems, a number of measures are planned. In particular, an additional 240 buses will be purchased to expand the fleet. Also, 16 new routes will be established and the number of daily trips will be increased by 2,000. The model and capacity of the buses are not specified in the decision.
To prioritize public transport, 16.2 km of BRT lanes and 56 km of dedicated bus lanes will be created. To strengthen control on these lanes, more than 600 cameras are planned to be installed.
As part of improving stop infrastructure, 1,116 stops will be reconstructed and another 70 new stops will be built. Additionally, an intelligent transport system will be introduced, including the installation of 545 "smart" traffic lights to manage traffic in real time.
In October 2025, the Ministry of Transport announced an additional delivery of 1,000 buses in 2026. Of these, 30 buses will be extra-large capacity (18 meters), 500 large capacity (12 meters), and 470 medium capacity (9 meters).
Source: www.gazeta.uz