Stickers on tickets in SLTB buses
Dinesh DE ALWIS
|
Minister Welgama
|
The Transport Ministry has introduced a special sticker urging
passengers to obtain a ticket while travelling in Sri Lanka Transport
Board (SLTB) buses.
The Ministry has designed three types of stickers and they will be
pasted in buses in the near future, Transport Minister Kumara Welgama
told a media briefing at the SLTB head office yesterday.
"We need public assistance to make the SLTB a profit earning
establishment. Some passengers do not obtain tickets while some
conductors do not issue tickets. We want to change this. This awareness
program will help us increase the SLTB income by 15 percent," he said.
The Minister said there is a transport problem in rural areas. The
Ministry will repair 1,000 buses and use them in rural areas. A team of
experts are preparing the timetables. The SLTB has 5,133 buses. This
will be increased to 7,000 soon. Currently 106 private buses and 20 SLTB
buses are travelling from Colombo to Jaffna.
"Private bus owners will have to pay Rs1.1 million per year as route
permit," Welgama said.
Meanwhile, the Transport Ministry has introduced a 24 hour hotline
for passengers. The hot line is 0117-555555. |
