Special transport services are being launched on Friday ahead of the Deepavali festival, with the Sri Lanka Transport Board deploying more than 200 additional buses, NewsFirst reported.
Director General of the National Transport Commission Dr. Nilan Miranda said the services will operate until 10 November.
Deepavali, the festival of lights observed by Sri Lanka’s Hindu community, falls on 8 November this year. The service window announced by the Transport Commission therefore spans the two days before the festival and the two days after it, covering both the outbound rush from Colombo and the return journeys at the end of the holiday.
Demand on the routes serving the hill country and the north and east typically rises sharply in this period, as people working in and around Colombo travel to home towns for the festival. Additional buses are a standard measure for Sri Lanka’s major religious holidays, alongside the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in April.
The filing does not break down how the additional buses have been distributed across routes, state whether private bus operators are running supplementary services alongside the state-run Transport Board, or indicate whether Sri Lanka Railways has added extra trains for the same period. No information is given on fare arrangements for the special services.
Passengers travelling over the festival period are advised to check scheduling and reservation arrangements with the Transport Board directly.
