Transport sector to be brought on par with emerging economies

by Gamini WARUSHAMANA

The quality of the transport service in Sri Lanka will be improved in the next two years and brought on par with emerging economies in the world, Deputy Minister of Transport Rohana Dissanayake told the Sunday Observer. Following are excerpts of the interview.

The Sri Lankan economy is growing at a rapid pace and during the past six years, socio economic conditions of the people have improved.

Deputy Minister of Transport Rohana Dissanayake

Over one-third of the population has a vehicle, at least a bicycle, and this causes traffic congestion on roads. A good public transport service is vital to reduce this burden and save energy and working time. The per-capita GDP has doubled and therefore people demand better services in all sectors.

Transportation is one of the key factors that determines the quality of life of the people and it contributes to the productivity of the workforce. Recognising these factors the government is gradually improving the quality of train and bus services.

The ministry has received Rs.41,850m for this year and investment in the transport sector will be higher this year. Train delays and cancellations, strikes and trade union action of workers that paralysed services in the past are reported very rarely now.

He said that tangible results can be seen in the quality improvement in the train services.

New trains and power- sets have been added and another 11 powersets are to be received this year. We have recognised that with the increase of the per-capita income, people earn higher incomes and are ready to pay more for better services. We have launched special luxury buses and train services targeting high income upper middle class groups.

These initiatives have been successful and there is an increasing demand. The demand for the Rajadhani and Expo luxury train services on the Kandy intercity train and luxury bus services between Kottawa Colombo and Moratuwa Colombo as well as the new luxury bus service between Maharagama and Galle on the Southern Expressway is on the increase.

Today four buses operate on the Southern Expressway and each bus runs six turns or 688 km a day. The total revenue from a bus is around Rs.105,000.

The Government's policy is that the state-owned SLTB should have 40 percent of the share in the public bus transportation and intervene into the market to regulate, set standards and maintain the quality of the service. Today the State has only 5,500 buses compared to 20,000 private buses. The SLTB will import 2000 new buses and engines and repair 500 buses to increase its fleet.

The Deputy Minister said that the bus service in rural areas have to be improved further and the fact there was a wide gap. Private bus operators were reluctant to run buses in the night and by 6 pm, 50 percent of private buses are off the roads and after 8 pm only a few private buses ply the roads.

The SLTB has to provide a night service and services on uneconomical routes. The SLTB has ordered 200 E-type small buses for rural roads.

The removal of taxes for the import of buses, lorries and tyres will also help to improve the transport service.

Due to many reasons the development of the transport sector has been lagging behind. The poor condition of the roads was also an issue. Today the road network has improved tremendously. Therefore the improvement of the quality of the service is not a difficult task.

The ministry will introduce standards for buses including the condition of seats, space between the seats, ventilation, duration of the journey, stops as well as the quality of hotels and restaurants that long journey buses halt considering the convenience of passengers.

"An attitude change of employees of the transport sector too is important for a good service. There are a lot of issues and complaints against bus conductors and drivers in the SLTB and the private sector. We will pay attention to these aspects as well this year", he said.

Today the government has a single policy framework, Mahinda Chintana - Forward Vision, that all sectors and aspects of the economic development are addressed together not in isolation. Therefore, the transport sector will progress parallel to the growing economy thus facilitating growth.