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| Sunday, 2 October 2005 |
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Double deckers on roads again by Ananda Kannangara Double decker buses will be deployed once again on selected routes of Colombo city by the Transport Ministry with the re-launching of the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB). Acting Transport Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna yesterday told the Sunday Observer that 18 double decker buses, gifted by the Japanese Government under a special grant will be shipped to Sri Lanka shortly to fulfil this need. "As an initial step of this program, all 18 buses will be deployed only on the main routes within the city limits," he said. However, the Minister insisted that deploying such buses beyond the city limits, especially at major towns where passenger transport services have been crippled to a greater extent will be considered following a full investigation of the state of the roads. "Such double decker buses cannot be deployed on several routes at major towns due to the dilapidated condition of the highways," he said. Meanwhile, the Minister said that 2000 new buses will be imported from India before December, this year, to strengthen the state transport service. "However, we came to know that 170 buses have already arrived at the Colombo Harbour and they will soon be dispatched to city depots as well as to other major depots that need buses urgently", he said. It is reported that two leading Indian bus manufacturers, the Tata and Ashok Leyland have already signed the agreement with the SLTB in this regard. The Deputy Transport Minister also insisted that the present fleet of 3000 buses which the SLTB owns at present, is not sufficient to meet the increasing requirements of passengers. Minister Alagiyawanna also was highly concerned over a large number of buses, which were overlooked by transport officials and idling at depot premises due to lack of spare parts. He said that a thorough investigation on the required spare parts will be carried out and measures be taken to import spare parts from India shortly. Meanwhile, a senior SLTB official told the Sunday Observer that no new
buses were added to the present fleet after the year 2000 and this is the
first occasion that transport officials had focused attention on importing
new buses and spare parts. |
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