Drivers of minibuses continue strike. Emil Unkuev, head of the City Transport Department of the Bishkek City Hall informed 24.kg news agency.

The City Hall does not know when the protest will end.

Emil Unkuev added that the municipality is preparing additional buses from the vehicle fleet of state bodies.

About 70 percent of drivers of minibuses did not show up for work yesterday morning. The drivers demand to increase the fare.

The City Hall offered three options for increasing fares, but it considers setting the cost of travel in municipal public transport at 11 soms, in buses of all classes of private transport companies (minibuses) — at 15 soms as the most acceptable. The day before, the Ministry of Economy received a positive response to the analysis of the regulatory impact of the project. The City Hall has submitted a draft resolution to the Bishkek City Council. Acting Mayor of Bishkek Baktybek Kudaibergenov met with the heads of associations and companies-carriers and said that the issue of tariffs for travel in minibuses in Bishkek will be resolved in September.

The minibus drivers have already staged a strike in January. Then they demanded to increase the fare first to 15 soms, and then — to 19-20 soms. They proposed to increase the municipal buses and trolleybuses fare to 10 soms.