Transport Minister to meet Chief Ministers

Irangika Range

In a bid to introduce a streamlined mechanism for providing the diesel subsidy to private buses at provincial levels, Transport Minister Dullas Allahapperuma will meet provincial Chief Ministers on May 6.

Minister Allahapperuma told the Daily News that the major objective of formulating this subsidy mechanism for private buses is to bring down the current private bus fare upto the SLTB bus fare level.

A diesel subsidy is expected to be provided after registering private bus organisations under regional cooporative bodies . All private buses will be registerd as co-operative bodies and one co-operative will be formed for one route by registering all private buses that have been deployed for the route.

"We have already provided a subsidy of Rs.30 per litre of diesel for private buses," he said. With the recent diesel price hike, the Government decided to increase the diesel subsidy to Rs.50 and it has to be provided under a proper system.

It is the responsibility of private bus owners to provide efficient bus services to commuters.If not there no point in granting subsidies for them", the Minister said.