Uzbek businesses invest over US$870m into passenger transport

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- During the past three years, private businessmen have bought over 1,400 buses and vans, as well as 10,000 cars, investing over 120 billion soums (US$ 874 million) into the passenger transportation sector.

The source said that over 300 transport companies were registered in Uzbekistan in 2006, which had a total of 10,000 vehicles.

Currently, the number of the transport companies have increased fivefold, and the number of vehicles sevenfold. A total of 1,800 transport companies have over 70,000 vehicles.

Last year, new 295 routes were opened based on the requests of citizens, educational establishments and companies. Several routes were made longer. At present, there are 3,310 routes in the country. There are plans to increase the number up to 3,500 by 2010.

About 97.3% of all passengers are transported by road vehicles.