Transport Minister calls for resignation of SLTB Chairman

The Minister of Transport and Highways, Bandula Gunawardena has called for the resignation of  Sri Lanka Transport Board Chairman, Kingsley Ranawaka. 

Explaining the reasons at  the weekly Cabinet Briefing on Tuesday (December 6), the Minister stated that the City bus service of the Makumbura Multimodal Centre has been abruptly shut down without informing the necessary authorities. 

The City Bus Service had been established with the concept of “Park and Ride”, where individual vehicles after exiting from the Highway can be parked and passengers board buses heading towards Colombo.  

With the Covid-19 crisis, it ceased and the Minister had begun the service again, after the crisis, where it was successful with around 800 people parking their cars and boarding buses, especially with the increasing fuel prices.  

However, many issues regarding disorganization rocked the service, where a bus supposed to be available within a time span of 15 minutes, either was available 30 minutes late or even unavailable, which caused loss in public trust.  

The Minister stated that this service was subsequently closed down by the Director Board since it was causing losses without informing the Minister, Secretary of the Ministry or the relevant authorities leading to people who had relied on the service had complained to the Minister.  

The Minister had already ordered the recommencement of the service on January 15, stating “If bus services are ceased for causing losses, there would be no buses in rural areas”.  

“If they cannot work with us, they cannot work with any Minister”, Mr. Gunawardena added.  

Another reason he pointed out was the inability of the Sri Lanka Transport Board to implement a Cabinet decision to utilize 80 buses imported by the Lanka Ashok Leyland PLC for school transport.  

The Lanka Ashok Leyland PLC had agreed to provide the Sri Lanka Transport Board with the 80 buses for the foreign exchange rate in 2017, which would bring down the cost of a bus from Rs. 9 million to Rs. 4.8 million. The payment was also offered to be paid across four years, with no interest.  

With the situation of the country, where parents are unable to pay van charges and bus fees, the Minister had proposed to the Cabinet the utilization of the buses, which was approved and a committee was established.  

However, the engineers of the Sri Lanka Transport Board opposed utilizing the buses as it was not of the necessary quality, despite the buses having been imported as a quality product.  

“If a Government institution cannot even implement such a proposal, the inside administration should change”, the Minister commented.  

“I have sent a letter demanding his resignation and I hope I will receive his resignation today”, the Minister stated.