The Metro Bus Service will be extended beyond the Western Province to Galle, Kandy and Jaffna, Minister of Transport, Highways and Urban Development Bimal Rathnayake said on Monday, speaking at the opening of the service’s second depot at Kadawatha.
Fleet to 172
A Cabinet paper has been submitted to procure a further 50 buses on the instructions of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the Minister said. With those, the fleet would reach 172 buses by the end of this year or early next.
Ada Derana and Daily Mirror additionally reported a nearer-term step the NewsFirst account does not mention: the fleet is to grow to 122 buses within this month. When Japan handed over seven low-floor buses on 2 September, the month-end target was given as 121.
The Minister also said the private sector would in future be given the opportunity to run services under agreement with the Metro company.
Four depots
The Kadawatha Metro Depot Yard is the second built under the first phase of the project. The first was vested in the public at Talangama, Battaramulla on 4 September. Two more are planned, at Ekala and Ratmalana.
The infrastructure is being developed jointly by the Ministry of Transport, Highways and Urban Development, the Clean Sri Lanka Secretariat, the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) and Lanka Metro Transit (Pvt) Ltd. Metro Bus Route No. 01 currently runs Makumbura to Kadawatha via Maharagama, with 15 new buses to be deployed on it, and work is under way on bus stops, integrated payment systems and parking yards.
What Metro buses will not do
Rathnayake was explicit that the SLTB, not Metro, remains the backbone of the network.
“The SLTB remains the backbone of public transport in Sri Lanka because the services it provides cannot be replicated by anyone else. Metro Buses cannot operate in mountainous regions such as Deraniyagala, nor can they serve remote areas like Bibile and Monaragala. Metro Buses are designed specifically for urban transportation.”
That qualification sits awkwardly beside the same speech’s announcement of expansion to Kandy — a hill-country city — and neither outlet put the question to him.
The President has approved the purchase of 600 air-conditioned buses for the SLTB, with a further 200 to be bought using the board’s own funds and provision made in the Budget for 50 smaller buses.
Not reported
Neither outlet gives the cost of the Kadawatha depot, the timetable or route plan for the Galle, Kandy and Jaffna services, or the value of the Cabinet paper for the 50 additional buses. Neither says when the Ekala and Ratmalana depots are due, nor what terms private operators would be offered.
