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| Sunday, 14 August 2005 |
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Make all state buses roadworthy by Ananda Kannangara The Colombo based Metropolitan Bus Company (MBC) on Friday revealed that Tuesday's islandwide private bus operators strike brought them a record revenue of Rs. 5.7 million in a single day. "This was an eye opener for top officials of the Transport Ministry to focus their attention on repairing 800 discarded buses, presently idling at eleven MBC depots," MBC, Senior Personnel Manager S.C. Weeraratna told the Sunday Observer. "If the officials take the challenge to repair at least 75 per cent of these discarded buses even at this juncture, it will be very useful to improve our daily income while overcoming such situations in the future," he said. Weeraratna also said that among 1401 buses, owned by the MBC controlled bus depots in the Western Province, only 600 buses are in a running condition. The depots that are controlled by the MBC are Meetotamulla, Angoda, Mattakkuliya, Talangama, Udahamulla, Homagama, Maharagama, Ratmalana, Katubedda, Moratuwa and Kesbewa. "Although 85 per cent of these discarded buses can be upgraded to a good condition, due to lack of spare parts, they are abandoned at depot premises," he said. The Senior Personnel Manager also said that most buses need spare parts such as injectors, pistons, gear boxes, leaf springs and tyres. "Considering the record income of Rs 5.7 million, the MBC recorded on that particular day against Rs. 2.5 million income usually received on other days, we are of the view that the daily revenue could be doubled if new strategies are adopted to increase the amount of buses of other cluster bus companies too. In response to a question, Weeraratna said that no new buses were added to the present fleet after the year 2000 and this it was high time officials paid attention to the importing of necessary spare parts as well as new buses in order to strengthen the state transport sector. |
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