 |
| Erion Veliaj at UN Conference |
Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference, organized by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Bonn, Germany. The increase of funding in the framework of efforts to combat global warming and the promotion of green investments were at the focus of this conference, where Tirana is selected as an example of the success of cooperation between the local government and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in the financing of environmentally friendly projects that affect the mitigation of climate problems.
Veliaj expressed his satisfaction that the work done in these two years, as well as the vision of the Municipality of Tirana to invest in environmental friendly projects made it a success story even in such important meetings.
"I am very excited that Tirana has been selected by the EBRD as a success story for the way has been transformed the city administration has with a more positive, environmentally friendly approach with dedicated bicycle lanes. We are still far away, however, I believe that Tirana is already a success story that deserves to continue in this direction," Veliaj said.He singled out the decision of the Municipality of Tirana to test and revolutionize all public transport in Tirana from the vehicles of oil and environmental pollutants in entirely electrical and ecological ones.
"We have successfully completed the testing of the electric bus in Tirana and this is another chance to appeal to all companies that are today operators, to start and make their orders for electric buses. This is an appeal to companies that do not provide services in Tirana, whether they have electric buses that are either rented or owned and want to come and get a license in Tirana, we will automatically prioritize someone who brings comparable electric buses with someone who has diesel buses," said the Mayor of Tirana.
By contrast, he warned that if existing public transport operators in Tirana or foreign companies are not offered to bring electric buses to Tirana, then the Municipality of Tirana will have a public company of its own that will provide this standard.
"If none of these happens, that the existing ones do not renew their fleet of buses or the new companies are not ready, then the Municipality of Tirana will be prepared to go to the City Council with a proposal to create a public company to bring electric buses, to bring them as the Municipality of Tirana. I believe these are the innovations that all avant-garde cities are experimenting with. This is one of the reasons why we want to be an avant-garde city, implementing this plan and this strict agenda regarding environmental issues in Tirana," Veliaj said.
Also, in the context of environmental policy, he added also the investments of the Municipality of Tirana for the addition of dedicated bicycle lanes.
"Beginning next year we will have mach more city bicycle lines and vertical bicycle road signs, 2,000 first bicycles will come in March and 2,000 in April will be available to make sure there is a chance in the whole city at a lower cost than the price of a bus ticket, to use for 1 hour a bicycle fromone corner of Tirana to the other corner. I believe that with all this package we are today one of the cities not only cleaner by the pollution, but also the most avant-garde city in terms of environmental protection and efficient transportation."
He gave good news that would affect all the citizens of Tirana, and in particular those who live in the area of the "Great Ring" and Kashar, and that has to do with water supply. The Mayor announced that thanks to the important decisions of the Municipality of Tirana, UKT has become a reliable enterprise by banks to take credit and to undertake the necessary investments in the network and processing capacities.
"As we have agreed with the EBRD the first credit, after all the difficult decisions we had about Tirana Water Supply and Sanitation, today we are more credible and financially more trustworthy. This enables us to get an initial loan within this year to make the investment that doubles the amount of water filtration from Bovilla and of course then to continue with the investment coming from Bovilla to the "New Ring" area, one of the problematic areas of this summer."