First ever vehicle park opens:

"CityLiner" coach service launch today

Irangika RANGE

The Government will open the country's first ever vehicle park under the "Park and Ride" concept in Katubedda, Moratuwa today to ease the traffic congestion due to nearly 200,000 private vehicles coming to Colombo City daily.

A super luxury coach service "CityLiner" will also be launched by Transport Minister Dullas Alahapperuma today to transport commuters to Colombo under the "Park and Ride" concept.

"We have a serious problem with regard to the number of vehicles amounting to about 200,000 cars, vans, motorcycles and three-wheelers coming into Colombo City daily," A spokesman for the Transport Ministry told the Daily News. This massive volume of vehicles crowds the entire Colombo City's routes and thereby creating huge traffic jams during peek hours." Under this facility, commuters who wish to travel to Colombo will be obliged to leave their personal vehicles in a secured park in Katubedda and then transfer to a luxury coach which would take them to their destinations.

This massive vehicle park will provide parking facilities for nearly 150 vehicles. Commuters will be transported by the CityLiner Coach Service to the Fort via Nawam Mawatha. The coach service has been permitted by the Western Provincial Road Passenger Authority on the recommendation of the National Transport Commition. The CityLiner Coach Service will be operated by the E.C.D. Global (Pvt) Ltd.

Initially the coach service will be operated every 30 minutes between 6.30 am to 8.30 am in the morning and will return to Katubedda from Fort between 4.30pm to 7.30pm. He said according to the survey, around 750,000 persons enter Colombo daily out of which 65 percent of commute by buses and trains.

The balance 35 percent travel by cars, vans, motor-cycles and three-wheelers to Colombo, which has led to huge traffic congestion.

Meanwhile, under the Urban Transport Strategy, the Government aims to reduce the numbers of private vehicles to 175,000 by the year2010 as private vehicles presently take up around65 percent of the road space.

The CityLiner service has been designed for commuters to read, relax, or even work on their laptop computers while traveling. newspapers and bottled water are also available on board the buses.