Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.

Provision of transport services to citizens with mobility difficulties is under the target of “Accessible Transport” project

Freedom of information center together with "Armenian Camp" Language and Sailing School NGO in the framework of "Informed Armenia" project has started implementing "Accessible transport" sub-grant project, which is co-funded by the European Union.

The project aims at monitoring and broadening the budget expenditures for the adaptation of people with mobility difficulties in the city of Yerevan. The goal is to assist citizens with mobility difficulties in Yerevan to increase the efficiency of transport services.

According to the project manager, a relevant decision was made in 2014, according to which buses in Yerevan should be equipped with elevators though they are not intended for it.

"In 2015-2016, 96 million drams have been spent on acquiring and installing 25 elevators in buses. In 2017 it was necessary to repair the buses and additional 12 million AMD was spent on it. Our monitoring conducted in 2019 shows that only 1 bus works from 25," notes Varduhi Aramyan, head of the Affordable Transport Program. In her words, they already have quite good results.

"We have monitored the entire procurement process, working with almost all people involved in this chain, starting with Yerevan Municipality, ending with beneficiaries and drivers of those buses. We have conducted a participatory monitoring, which allows us to analyze and speak about the results, " she said.
Here is the video about the project.