Drivers win: right-hand-drive ban shelved after Iyık Janyl protest

IYIK JANYL — The Ministry of Transport yesterday withdrew its proposal to ban new registrations of right-hand-drive cars, two days after several hundred drivers parked across the main roads of Iyık Janyl and Bazar-Korgon in protest. A spokesman said the plan "needs further study" and would not be put forward this year.

The proposal, published last month, would have stopped the registration of cars with the steering wheel on the right, most of them used Japanese imports bought through dealers in Bishkek and Almaty, which are much cheaper than left-hand-drive cars of the same age. In the south, drivers say, they make up nearly half the cars on the road.

On Saturday morning drivers left their cars across the bridge in Iyık Janyl and on the Bazar-Korgon road for four hours, sounding their horns. "In Talas they drive Camrys. Here we drive what we can afford," said a taxi driver at the protest. "If the wheel is on the wrong side, we will learn to sit on the wrong side."

The ministry had cited road safety. The Highway Patrol Corps said it had no figures showing that right-hand-drive cars were involved in more accidents. Drivers in Iyık Janyl celebrated last night by driving round the cathedral square, in both directions.