By Trend
Head of the State Automobile Transport Service (DANX) of Azerbaijan under the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Habib Hasanov told Trend about the work done in the transport sector of Azerbaijan in 2020.
According to Hasanov, from 00:00 (GMT +4) on March 24, 2020, in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Azerbaijan, on the basis of the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, restrictions on inter-district and international passenger transportation were imposed.
"To ensure the implementation of the relevant order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan ‘On approval of the action plan to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in Azerbaijan’, DANX has taken appropriate preventive measures against COVID-19 disease," he said. "Through the measures it was necessary to ensure the implementation of disinfection work by the relevant carriers at the bus stations conducting passenger transportation within the country, including daily disinfection of the territory of the stations, waiting room, service premises, cultural and welfare, and sanitary and hygienic areas, and also take urgent measures in the field of disease prevention."
"The respective written instruction was given in connection with the drawing up of acts on carrying out daily disinfection works under the control of DANX with the provision of official information," added the official.
He noted that in accordance with the measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection, DANX, as part of its control, from April 2020 to date, carried out 165,763 monitorings and identified 13,341 shortcomings. The share of violations revealed during the monitoring was about 8 percent of the total number of requests.
"During the monitoring, there have been checked the provision of workers with protective means and disinfectants (39,673 monitorings, 1,020 violations), placing posters at stops and in vehicles urging less use of transport, walking and keeping a distance (18,630 monitorings, 1,162 violations)," Hasanov pointed out.
“Besides, there have been also checked posting of information requiring citizens to wear medical masks and informing on the need to maintain social distance (142 monitorings, 11 violations), installation of transparent partitions by carriers to exclude physical contact between the driver and passengers on buses (21,176 monitorings, 1,177 violations), transportation of passengers only in the rear seats (23,392 monitorings, 5,111 violations)," added the service’s chief.
“No restrictions were imposed in the sphere of cargo transportation, taxi services, intercity and intra-city passenger transportation in Azerbaijan. Indicators for international passenger transportation covered the first quarter of 2020, and freight transportation by road, taxi services, intercity and intra-city regular passenger transportation, throughout the year,” he further noted.
“Some 150 buses were running in the direction of Baku - Sumgayit - Absheron: 35 buses in the direction of Baku - Sumgayit, 58 buses in the direction of Baku - Absheron, 57 buses in the direction of Sumgayit - Absheron during 2020,” the head of the State Service added.
“Some 8.2 million passengers were transported in the abovementioned directions in 2020, namely, 1.566 million passengers in the direction of Baku - Sumgayit, 3.4 million passengers - in the direction of Baku - Absheron, 3.3 million passengers in the direction of Sumgayit – Absheron,” the head of the State Service said.
“Taking into account the intracity and intraregional passenger transportation, 1,030 buses were running in 355 directions and over 2.8 billion passengers were transported in the cities and districts of Azerbaijan," Hasanov said.
“Following the agreements on international transportation by vehicles, concluded among the governments of Azerbaijan and Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Iran, registration of regular international bus routes, along which passengers are transported in 34 directions, has been ensured,” the head of the State Service said.
“In particular, trips to Russia were organized in 13 directions, to Georgia - in 12 directions, to Turkey - in three directions, to Iran - in five directions, to Iraq - in one direction,” Hasanov said. “Some 1,200 permit forms were issued for international passenger transportation in the first quarter of 2020.”
"Another important direction of transportation is cargo transportation by vehicles,” Hasanov said. “During the restrictive measures in Azerbaijan, no restrictions were imposed on both domestic and international freight transportation.”
“The goods were transported within the country and outside by complying with the relevant rules and regulations," the head of the State Service said added.
In general, the following number of permit forms were issued for ensuring international transportation with foreign countries:
- entry, exit, and transit travel – 155,325 pieces;
- cargo delivery by transit to/from Azerbaijan to a third country – 16,060 pieces;
- multilateral permits (valid for a year) – 1,200 pieces;
- multilateral permits (for a month) - 240 pieces.
Moreover, the head of the State Service stressed that 58,907 foreign freight vehicles passed through Azerbaijan during the year.
“Local national carriers transported about two million tons of cargo by transit through other countries,” Hasanov added. "More than 3.5 million manat ($2.05 million) was transferred to the Azerbaijani state budget related to 97,031 permit forms issued to the local companies and carriers in 2020.”
“During the same period, the Azerbaijani State Road Transport Service and its local structures drew up 803 protocols on cases of administrative offenses,” the head of the State Service said. “The decisions were made regarding 112 of those protocols to send them to the appropriate courts."
“During the period of the special quarantine regime, 10,232 taxi drivers were allowed to transport passengers and 9,086 drivers – were allowed to transport goods,” Hasanov said.
“During the reporting period, a tax in the amount of over 1.8 million manat ($1.05 million) was paid in connection with 104,828 insignia,” the head of the State Service said.
Thus, 13,078 insignia were issued for rendering intracity services, 4,683 insignia - for intercity transportation, 16,426 insignia - for taxi, 63,656 insignia - for freight transportation, as well as 2,652 registered insignia and 4,333 special insignia.
Azerbaijani State Road Transport Service’s support service through its official website and Facebook page received 18,650 appeals over the past year.
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