Private operators protest new buses: Nobody's getting on our buses.

Pristina municipality mayor Shpend Ahmeti has reacted to this protest, calling it blocking the streets of the capital.

Ahmeti says the municipality has long announced that older buses will be replaced with the young, writes Periscopi.

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Some of the private public transport operators in Pristina are still protesting today, blocking the streets of the capital. The main complaint is that we have bused in parts of the city where they have profits, especially on Muharrem Feyza Street and in Calabria (economic schools). The carrier from Makovci also complained that Keckella's bus is taking the passengers because everyone wants to drive on the new buses.

The request is for the new buses to be pulled out of Calabria and the Hospital Law because they have their old buses behind these lines.

Urban traffic has called subcontractors several times in recent years that new buses will replace the old.

Calabria and the hospital's Laja have made hundreds of requests for public transportation. There's a lot of lines going through some of the same streets. The Pristina municipality owns public transport lines, and the service for citizens is above private interest. The municipality decides where the need for transport is and where it will put the lines and buses.

Pristina needs 160 buses, and with the Law on Credit, we have the condition that 80 are from the public sector and 80 from the private sector. We have 51 in public ownership.

By January, we will tender the lines for the private sector and have the same kiloeme payment contract as urban traffic. Incomes from tickets are transferred to municipalities. The contracts will be seven years old, but companies should invest in buses much younger than they have today. We'll have a standard in the entire public transport. We'll see the possibility of faster contracting with companies that have offered responsible transportation for years in our municipality.

I invite companies to prepare for this activity in the coming weeks and not to protest because new buses cannot be pulled out for private company profit. Pristina needs transport, so let's think about serving citizens.