Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation has received the cabinet nod to purchase 500 new buses for the state-owned Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB). Although 7,257 buses are required according to the transportation time table of the Sri Lanka Transport Board to fulfill the passenger requirements, only 6,000 buses have been operated in service due to the shortage of buses, a statement on recent cabinet decisions said.
Moreover, 1,560 buses of the fleet of buses of the SLTB are more than 15 years old, and since they constantly succumb to technical failures, the Board has not been able to provide a dependable service to fulfill the passenger requirements, it has been pointed out. In addition, annually about 500 buses have to be removed from the fleet due to expiry of the life span and accidents.
Considering these issues, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva has made the proposal to procure 400 new buses with 50-54 High Back Seaters to be deployed for passenger services in urban routes and 100 new buses with 32-35 Seaters to be used for the passenger services in the rural routes.
