The so-called non-contact trolleybuses (trolleybuses equipped with electricity storage system) have appeared on the roads in Dushanbe.
Four new trolleybuses equipped with the fire extinguishing system, the system of video surveillance with functions of recording and storage of information and the air conditioning system run along Route 1 from Sadriddin Ayni Park to Dushanbe Railway Station.
Recall, the Dushanbe Administration announced the purchase of four such trolleybuses, costing approximately 250,000 U.S. dollars each, in mid-January this year.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has allocated funds for buying those trolleybuses. 50 percent of the funds have reportedly been provided in the form of loan and 50 percent of them have been provided in the form of grant.
The trolleybuses have been purchased in the framework of the Dushanbe Public Transport Extension Project, financed by the EBRD.
Dushanbe State Communal Unitary Trolleybus Company intends using the proceeds of a loan from the EBRD and a grant from the EBRD’s SSF for a project extension to further rehabilitate trolleybus infrastructure in Dushanbe. The proposed project, which has a total estimated cost of US$ 8 million equivalent in particular, requires supply of 4 trolleybuses with increased autonomous run, spare parts, maintenance equipment and incidental services.
Manufactured at Belkommunmash plant in Belarus, the non-contact trolleybuses (model 32100D) are equipped with the lithium-titanate electricity storage system and the stored power is reportedly enough for up to 15 kilometers of autonomous run.
The lithium-titanate battery is a type of rechargeable battery which has the advantage of being faster to charge than other lithium-ion batteries.
According to the Dushanbe Administration, 87 trolleybuses now run along seven routes in the Tajik capital.
