Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. It is recorded that around 1.2 million people make daily commutes on the roads in Ulaanbaatar city with a total population of around 1.6 million. Parents driving their children to school is a big factor that creates extra traffic congestion during morning and afternoon rush hours as traffic jam is one of the pressing issues faced by Ulaanbaatar city.





As an effort to reduce traffic jam, school bus service is to be tested for 27 elementary schools in 33 routes within Ulaanbaatar, starting tomorrow, November 15. The decision made by the Mayor of Ulaanbaatar city and Governor of the capital city will cover around 3000 students from second to fifth classes in elementary schools. This measure will not only help eliminating the traffic congestion, but also will save costs and time spent by parents for school drop-offs and prevent children from waiting for public transports in the cold.





About MNT 30 million is required for the test implementation of the school bus service for 22 workdays, funding for which the Ulaanbaatar city municipality will be in charge. If the school bus service is deemed to be effective, the service will become permanent and necessary expenditure for this service will be budgeted for city’s annual budget. In the future, it is calculated that around MNT 1 billion will be financed for the duration around 7.5 months for the school bus program.





Each one of the total 40 school buses for service will be accompanied by a school’ social worker in order to ensure safety of the children and is installed with GPS tracker so that parents are able to know where their child's bus is.





According to officials of the Ulaanbaatar city, this measure is expected to reduce traffic volume by 30 percent.