New vehicles top 3.3 million

Uditha Kumarasinghe

Registered vehicles

* Registered petrol vehicles: 2,532,449
* Registered diesel vehicles: 809,536
* Registered Petrol vehicles:
* Motor cars: 338,159
* Three-wheelers: 378,864
* Motor bicycles: 1,760,576
* Buses: 2,737
* Dual purpose
vehicles: 22,212
* Lorries: 29,901

A total number of 3,390,933 motor vehicles had been registered in Sri Lanka as at December 31,2008.According to Road Passenger Transport Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna of this number 2,532,449 were petrol vehicles and 809,536 diesel vehicles. The number of trailers not using fuel(and electricity) was 49,008. The total number of registered petrol vehicles include motor cars (338,159), three-wheelers (378,864), motor bicycles (1,760,576), buses (2,737), dual purpose vehicles (22,212) and lorries (29,901).

“Sri Lanka is a country which has a high population density. Annually Rs.30 billion is spent on fuel due to traffic congestion. Nearly 830,000 people come to Colombo city daily. Of this total number,nearly 500,000 people come to Colombo in 12,000 buses while 100,000 people travel by train.

The balance 230,000 come to Colombo in their own vehicles. In addition 250,000 vehicles have been registered only within the Colombo city limit,” he said. Steps should be taken to strengthen the country’s public transport service, to reduce the number of people coming to Colombo in their private vehicles and minimise the traffic congestion, Alagiyawanna said.

The Minister said the Ministry has introduced the Park and Ride concept to reduce the number of people who come daily to Colombo city using their own vehicles.

Under this program, those who come to Colombo via Galle Road can park their vehicles at Moratuwa and travel to their work places by a special luxury bus arranged by the Ministry.

The Ministry has made arrangements to introduce this same concept to High Level, Kandy and Negombo roads following the progress achieved by this program, the Minister added. Commenting on the price of petrol remaining continuously higher than the price of diesel, the Minister said public transport mode comprises of diesel vehicles (such as trains, buses, lorries and vans etc). Almost all petrol operated vehicles are private vehicles.

Therefore it is the responsibility of the Government to maintain the price of diesel at a minimum level so as to grant relief to the masses using public transport. In addition, a significant contribution is made to the economic progress of the country by diesel-operated vehicles.

Minister Alagiyawanna said: ‘Of the country’s total population, only 10 percent have four-wheel, three-wheel or two wheel vehicles. Nearly 18 million of the country’s population does not own any vehicle.

Therefore, we have to seriously consider these 18 million people when a gap is maintained between diesel and petrol prices.”