LAZ planning to produce at least 1,000 buses, trolleybuses in 2011

Kyiv, April 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Lviv Bus Plant (LAZ) expects to produce at least 1,000 buses and trolleybuses in 2011.

"A minimum of 1,000 [of buses and trolleybuses are to be made], but we want to reach [a target of] 1,500 [vehicles]," the director general of City Transport Group Ltd., the managing company of LAZ, Oleksandr Lobko, said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.

He said that production directly depends on financing.

"Today we can produce 3,000-4,000 buses per year after the upgrade," Lobko said.

He said that LAZ was supplying products to the cities that are to host the Euro 2012 finals in proportion to the advance payments it receives from them.

"We fulfilled those contracts where we had advance payments. Now we're supplying to Donetsk and Kharkiv. We've met the deadline," he said.

In particular, the top manager said that Lviv obtained ten 12-meter buses, fifteen 13-meter buses and one 10-meter bus.

In addition, LAZ supplied around forty 18-meter trolleybuses to Kharkiv.

Kyiv expanded its fleet with ten LAZ 18-meter buses and Donetsk obtained 15 buses and 15 trolleybuses, Lobko said.