(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –The Sri Lanka Transport Boar (SLTB) says the daily income of the SLTB bus depots has increased and the government has decided to add 2000 more buses to the fleet this year.
The state-run public transport institution said there are 107 bus depots of the SLT island wide. Except for 12 depots, the other 95 depots have earned Rs. 150,000 per day from each depot in the past month. Accordingly, the revenue earned from a single depot during the last month is Rs. 4.5 million.
This was revealed when Minister of Transport Services Management Mahinda Amaraweera participated in the progress review meeting held at the head office of the Sri Lanka Transport Board recently.
SLTB currently has a fleet of 7000 buses and 5700 of them are in good running condition. About 700 buses run daily. Minister Amaraweera said 500 new buses are to be purchased for the SLTB. Another 2000 low-floor buses will also be purchased.
During the meeting, several measures have been proposed to bring the loss-making depots to a profitable position. The Minister also instructed the officials to expedite the recruitment of drivers and conductors to fill the vacancies promptly.
