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Public transportation returns to Pristina after more than a week of absence

2025-12-03 12:06:04, Kosova & Bota CNA

Public transport buses resumed operations on Wednesday morning in Pristina, more than a week after leaving residents of the Kosovo capital without public transport, as a result of a dispute between the municipality and the incumbent Government.

Urban Traffic in Pristina announced late Tuesday that it would resume operations, and its buses were seen circulating on the streets of the capital on Wednesday morning.

In its announcement, Urban Traffic emphasized that it was resuming services after the allocation of funds from the acting Ministry of Finance and the payment of invoices and debts from the Municipality of Pristina to it and private transporters had begun.

"Over the past few days, the interruption of transportation has been inevitable due to the financial impossibility created by the Municipality's non-payment of obligations to the company," she said.

In recent months, the incumbent government and municipal officials have been exchanging constant accusations against each other over the complicated financial situation in the municipality.

Public transport was restored after the acting Ministry of Finance allocated 2.7 million euros for goods and services to the municipality of Pristina on Tuesday, a few days after the municipality approved its own revenues for 2024, in the amount of 28 million euros.

Acting Minister of Finance, Hekuran Murati, said on Tuesday that this amount had been processed separately from the remaining 25.9 million euros of capital projects, "so that it can be carried out today with priority, because capital projects, being on many lines, take longer and it was not possible to carry them out today."

He justified the delays in allocating funds to the municipality, following constant criticism from the mayor of the capital, Përparim Rama.

"The decision taken by the Municipality of Pristina on Thursday evening regarding own-source revenues, according to the legislation in force, initially had to pass the verification of legality, a process that is carried out by the MLGA," said Murati.

Murati added that "it is regrettable that the municipality of Pristina is making disinformation statements that the Ministry is allegedly not allocating funds, when in fact they themselves know that we are dealing with procedures that cannot be overcome."

Disagreements with the municipality and the incumbent government forced the citizens of the capital throughout last week and the beginning of this week to look for alternatives to travel./ REL