More night buses to be deployed:

Late evening commuters still depend on SLTB:

SLTB adds 500 to fleet

By Ananda KANNANGARA

'The Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) which operates over 4500 buses islandwide on a single day has decided to add another 500 to its present fleet to strengthen the services further, before the end of this year', - SLTB Chairman

Chairman of the SLTB, M.D. Bandusena in an interview with the Sunday Observer said that of the 500 new buses, around 100 will be semi-luxury.

"These buses will ply on long distance routes,".

"Our fares are reasonable and therefore hope passengers, especially family groups would prefer to travel long distance in SLTB buses".

He was quite confident that the SLTB could be converted into a profitable venture once these services are introduced. Semi-luxury buses are convenient for groups visiting places such as Kataragama, Polonnaruwa, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Trincomalee and so on.

"Since a large number of people from the South have now visiting the North, we have decided to operate more buses on the Colombo -Jaffna, route".

M.D. Bandusena Pix. by Vipula Amarasinghe

Gamunu Wijeratna

He said steps have also been taken to deploy additional school buses in the Northern region, following a recent survey that showed there is a marked improvement in school going population in the peninsula, now that the conflict situation has ended.

The Chairman also thanked the Transport Minister, Kumara Welgama for his decision to strengthen the Northern Region Transport sector for the convenience of passengers which will result in the improvement of trade between South, North and the East.

He said the present fleet of around 300 buses in the Northern region, cannot cope with the needs of the population.

He said the conflict situation is now over and new offices, public and private banks, new enterprises, workshops, hospitals, shopping complexes and schools have opened up in the region.

"Under this situation, we have taken a policy decision to provide more buses to the Northern region shortly.

The SLTB Chairman also said he has decided to improve the late night bus services countrywide, for the convenience of majority of office and industrial sector workers.

The decision to deploy additional night buses was taken following several complaints from commutters that many depots, especially in rural areas have neglected late night bus services. Due to this situation passengers were made to face untold hardships, late in the evenings. The SLTB chairman also focused his attention to the repairs of a large number of buses which are idling at the depot yards.He said that out of the 4500 odd buses more than 50 percent could be made roadworthy with replacement of spare parts.

"I have personally taken a decision to visit all the depots countrywide to look into this.

The Chairman also spoke about the recommencement of the Colombo-Jaffna bus service after a gap of 30 years and said ten buses are in operation both ways, everyday.

"Most of these buses are operated during night and our next objective will be to increase the present fleet for the benefit of goods transport between Jaffna and Colombo,".

He added the services between Kandy-Jaffna, Batticaloa-Jaffna, Matale-Jaffna, Ampara-Jaffna and Trincomalee-Jaffna will be expanded further with more buses in the coming months.

Asked as to whether steps have been taken to crack down on ticketless travellers, the Chairman said that flying squad inspectors have been mobilised on this task."We not only crackdown on ticketless travellers, but also on errant bus conductors who do not issue tickets, especially at nights".Meanwhile, President, Lanka Private Bus Operators Association (LPBOA), Gamunu Wijeratna said although around 18,000 private buses operate all over the country everyday, only a handful of buses are on the roads after 10.00 pm, mainly due to non implementation of a proper time table worked out between the SLTB and the LPBOA.

He therefore urged authorities to introduce a new time table system even at this juncture to enable private bus operators also to commence late night bus services. He said a time table system will also help to avoid road accidents commonly reported at present due to competitions. The LPBOA, President also said an Employees Provident Fund (EPF) scheme will be introduced for the benefit of employees of all buses in the near future.

Speaking on the recently commenced bus services between Colombo and Jaffna, the LPBOA, President said the Government should not allow any buses to ply between Colombo and Jaffna without valid route permits. Over 70 buses which ply between these two destinations have no valid route permits.