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| Sunday, 13 March 2005 |
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Private bus strike unlikely by S. Selvakumar The threatened strike action of private buses is likely to be put on hold following fruitful discussions held with Western Provincial Council Chief Minister Reginald Cooray. Members of the private bus association will meet with Transport Minister Felix Perera during the course of this week since the strike issue was addressed to the government. Private Bus Owners' Association President, Gemunu Wijeratne, said that the issue involves the question of time tables and it has become very much imperative in view of moves to re-establish the CTB "We were in operation for the last 26 years but without a timetable. With cluster bus company operations we were not bothered but still insisted on a timetable which was not given to us", Wijeratne said. The private bus operators threatened to go on strike from March 22 but at the talks the Chief Minister promised to meet their main demands. Wijeratne said, in the Western Province alone private buses operate on 306 routes and when the CTB comes into operation by May this year they would run 9000 buses and without a time table private and CTB would clash. Furthermore we want to operate school, office and night services too, without any clash with the CTB, he added. Buses operating in the night would charge double the day fare for short distances. For example, Colombo Fort to Maradana where the day fare is Rs. 4 would go up to Rs. 8 after 10 and these night buses would be painted differently from the day buses. Though Wijeratne did not say that the strike action has been called off he sounded very pleased with the outcome of talks so far held and was optimistic the talks with Minister Perera too would end satisfactorily. |
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