As part of their technical aid program, Russia will donate 250 GAZ buses and spare parts to Nicaragua this year (2021). The Russian News Agency TASS said that the total cost of this aid to the Republic of Nicaragua is US $17.8 Million and will come from the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade.
According to TASS, the buses will come from the Russian manufacturer The GAZ Group, the same company that previously provided buses to Nicaragua. The GAZ Group is Russia’s top producer of light, medium and commercial vehicles and buses with an extensive product range which includes engine sales and over 500 types of specialty vehicles.
In May 2012, 139 new KAVZ-4328 Aurora “middle-class” buses were shipped from Russia to Managua as the last part of a donation to develop the public bus route system in the nation’s capital of Managua. At that time, GAZ confirmed that a total of 380 buses had already been shipped to Nicaragua over a three year period through the free technical assistance program operated by the Russian government.
Over the delivery period, GAZ had introduced some changes to the design of the buses so as to improve their performance in tropical conditions. These included allowing for rough terrain and the rainy season, larger side windows with tinted glass, vandal-proof seats and special roof mounted air intake systems.
The KAVZ-4328 Aurora looks like it’s been updated over the years but the new model number KAVZ-4235 Aurora is still described by GAZ as the company’s “Middle-Class Bus for City and Suburban Service”.
Trivia: GAZ is short for the Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (was known as Gorky Automobile Plant) based in Nizhny Novgorod, a city formerly named Gorky after Maxim Gorky a Russian and Soviet writer and political activist.
Public Transport in Managua
Earlier this year, the four year METROBÚS Rapid Transit project was announced. This should see a dedicated fast bus lane down the middle of the Pista Juan Pablo II (which dissects the capital from Carretera Sur just south of the US Embassy, across the city and all the way up to Carretera Norte).
An estimates 800 thousand people use the public transport system in Managua every day and one of the goals of the METROBÚS project will be to open up connections to new commercial area
Costa Rica is starting to use electric buses, I hope Nicaragua can obtain some of those soon. Prices of all electric vehicles are falling fast.
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