The government’s Metro bus service will be extended to Jaffna and Kandy before the end of this year, Transport Minister Bimal Ratnayake said, taking the fleet beyond the Colombo region for the first time.
“We hope to launch the Metro bus service in Jaffna and Kandy by the end of this year. Metro depots will also be established in both districts,” the Minister said in remarks reported by the Daily Mirror.
Ratnayake said 121 Metro buses acquired from China and several other countries are currently going through legal procedures including registration, and should enter public service by the end of August once the paperwork is complete. Several new routes have already been identified, with details to be announced in the coming days.
A further 50 Metro buses are due from Japan before the end of the year, which the Minister said would allow the service to operate outside Colombo.
Figures that do not yet line up
The Minister’s account sits alongside a different set of numbers given by the operator two days earlier. Lanka Metro Transit chairman U.P. Thilakaratne told NewsFirst on July 31 that all 104 imported buses would enter service in September across seven Colombo-area route pairs.
The two statements differ on both fleet size — 121 against 104 — and timing, with the Minister pointing to the end of August and the operator to September. Neither the Ministry nor the company has reconciled the figures publicly. The 104 buses were sourced from FOTON International Corporation in China under an agreement signed in May and arrived at Colombo Port in late July.
Longer-term targets
Ratnayake said the government wants the Metro fleet to exceed 500 buses by 2030, and that passenger information on board will be displayed in Sinhala, Tamil and English.
The stated objective is to shift commuters out of private vehicles and onto public transport in order to reduce traffic congestion, fuel consumption and pollution.
Source: Daily Mirror.
