Cabinet approves 50 electric buses to improve urban public transport; Bus Rapid Transit system proposed

The Cabinet  has approved  a proposal presented by Transport & Civil Aviation Minister, Nimal Siripala de Silva to purchase 50 electric buses for the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) in order to improve urban public passenger transport service.

Minister de Silva has also proposed to establish an environmentally friendly Bus Rapid Transit System that is easily accessible for the elderly and disabled passengers in the city of Colombo, and to purchase 50 air-conditioned, low-floor buses.

The statement said that owing to the lack of a convenient, reliable and efficient public transport service, many commuters use private vehicles for their day-to-day transport resulting in heavy traffic congestion on urban roads and air pollution, a cabinet statement pointed out.

The SLTB has 6,300 buses in running condition and out of those 2,467 buses are more than 10 years old. Due to the frequent breakdown of the old buses providing a reliable and efficient bus service to the public is hindered. The SLTB needs 7,257 total buses to meet demand as per the time table, the statement said.