Bus fares won't change - Transport Minister

Shirley WIJESINGHE

There is no necessity to increase bus fares due to the present fixed non fluctuating diesel prices in the world market. CTB and Omni bus service fares will remain unchanged, Transport Minister Kumara Welgama said.

"Tt is true that prices of spareparts and lubricants are high, but no considerable diesel price hike can be expected during this year," he said.

Addressing the media on the revision of bus fares at the National Transport Commission (NTC) auditorium yesterday, Minister Welgama said the calculated rate bus fare was in accordance with NTC directions which is at 0.5 percent. It is less than 50 cents.

Certain demands of Omni Bus Associations are basically based on running private buses according to a timetable, removing existing fare anomalies and reducing surplus buses in some routes were taken into consideration.

The Minister assured a clear and acceptable solution for them.

The Minister said he will introduce a new method to generalize the present tender system to award inter provincial bus routes creating more opportunities for small scale owners (one or two) to the private bus industry.

Commenting about the national transport service, the Minister said the Government has no hesitation in operating CTB services even incurring loses. But there is a possibility to break even by improving the service up to competitive level, the Minister said.

He emphasized a need to increase the bus fleet up to 10,000 to conduct a competitive, efficient and satisfactory combined passenger transport service with the private bus services. "The CTB does not agree to a combined passenger transport service due to a lack of sufficient bus fleet," he added.