Luis Escobar / La Paz
The new PumaKatari buses arrived in Patacamaya and began their customs clearance process. Once in La Paz, the vehicles will begin their test period before circulating in the city. These 66 motorized vehicles arrived to replace those that were burned in November 2019.
Photo: Carlos Sánchez / Page Seven
The mayor of La Paz, Iván Arias, said yesterday that the “bus by bus” evaluation will be carried out to see that they meet the technical manufacturing specifications. “These are things that do not depend on us, but on other instances for the definitive delivery. We have to review mobility for mobility, now it is the responsibility of Dicsa”, said the mayor.
It is not yet known how long the nationalization process will take. However, Arias announced that the Dicsa company, responsible for transporting the vehicles, will report on this issue. The Mayor’s Office indicated that the buses will arrive at the Central Urban Park (PUC), where officials prepare a reception ch’alla.
With this fleet, the Mayor’s Office plans to reinforce the seven routes that already operate in La Paz, and also plans to open two to three new ones in the medium term.
According to Arias, in addition, for the relaunch of the bus, the commune is preparing to enable other services, such as the single card for users and the safe stops that will have security cameras and Wi-Fi service.
The Mayor said that the objective is for the Municipal Transport Service (Setram) to function like the subway, with a public transport network that allows the transfer of users from one bus to another on its different service routes.
Transfer
Photo: Carlos Sánchez / Page Seven
The first 48 PumaKatari buses arrived yesterday morning at the National Customs in Patacamaya from the port of Iquique (Chile).
Photo: Carlos Sánchez / Page Seven
This batch passed through the towns of Colchane, Pisiga and the city of Oruro.
“It takes five hours to Colchane, four hours from Colchane to Oruro and two hours from Oruro to here (Patacamaya),” said the driver of one of the trailers that transferred one of the PumaKatari buses from the port of Iquique.
According to the driver, the most complicated thing was getting on the buses and preventing them from having any damage. “They don’t have to have any scratches or be in bad shape,” he said. He assured that they have been traveling for two days (since Wednesday) with the Pumas to Patacamaya.
This population is located in the Aroma province of the department of La Paz. In this place there is a customs point, where the PumaKatari buses are nationalized. Then, the motorized will be transferred to the city of La Paz.
Plan of the year 2019
- Draft According to the initial project, the ChikiTiti buses were to cover the routes to Mallasa, Pasankeri and La Portada. The routes are characterized by being steep and difficult for large buses to operate. The 66 buses were burned in November 2019 after Evo Morales resigned from the Presidency and the project was cut short.
- Action The Mayor is preparing a relaunch with adjustments to the current seven routes and new routes for the buses.
They prepare the payment of Bs 40 million
The Mayor’s Office of La Paz assured that it has the 40 million Bolivians to pay the remaining 50% for the 66 PumaKatari buses. This money was delivered by Fortaleza, the Bolivian financial entity that was in charge of the insurance of the buses for their replacement.
“The municipal government has a book in which more than 40 million Bolivians are consigned, which are the balance pending payment to the importing company. The payment will be made only when it has complied with the formal delivery of the 66 PumaKatari buses (to the Mayor’s Office),” said Finance Secretary José Antonio Rivera. The 40,056,192 bolivianos are the resources that remained after the 50% advance.
