Buses found burning kerosene instead of diesel will have their route permits temporarily suspended, authorities said, after a night-time inspection at Colombo’s Bastian Mawatha bus stand found nearly two-thirds of the vehicles checked required maintenance orders.
The operation was run by the Vehicle Emission Testing Programme with the National Transport Commission, the Daily Mirror reported. Buses were checked for both roadworthiness and emissions.
Of the 59 buses inspected, 39 were issued maintenance orders.
Why the inspection ran at night
Officials said the operation deliberately targeted buses that do not run during the day and therefore tend to escape routine inspection — an enforcement gap the night-time timing was designed to close.
A separate roadworthiness inspection of buses operating in the Kilinochchi area was carried out on Tuesday (22) under the same programme.
Officials said the checks aim to identify buses unfit to operate, with the stated priorities being passenger safety and environmental protection.
What the report does not say
The headline announces suspensions for kerosene use, but the published account does not state how many of the 59 buses were actually found running on kerosene, or whether any permit has yet been suspended. Nor does it say whether the 39 maintenance orders relate to fuel adulteration or to unrelated mechanical and emissions faults.
No penalty schedule, suspension period or appeal process is described, and the report does not identify which authority issues the suspension — route permits are administered by the NTC for inter-provincial routes and by provincial authorities otherwise.
Running a diesel engine on kerosene is a long-standing cost-cutting practice when the price gap between the two fuels widens. It damages injection systems and raises particulate emissions, which is what an emissions test would detect.
The Daily Mirror is the only verified newsroom to have filed on this inspection. An earlier, separate operation in which 40 long-distance buses were found below standard was reported on September 5 and is a different exercise.
