Approximately 55,000 passengers have travelled from the Makumbura Multimodal Centre to their hometowns since April 8 for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations, authorities confirmed on Saturday.
NTC Director (Planning) Aloka Karunaratne said the highest number of departures was recorded on April 11, the day before Avurudu, as the bulk of travellers headed out of Colombo for the holiday. She made the remarks while inspecting bus services at the Makumbura hub on April 12.
Long-distance buses have been deployed at intervals of 15 to 20 minutes, with both state-run and private services operating on scheduled timetables. Some buses have been running up to three trips to meet demand.
Special post-New Year bus services will operate from April 16 to 21 to facilitate passengers returning to Colombo after the holiday period.
The figures update the pre-Avurudu travel rush coverage from April 11, when the SLTB deployed 1,490 buses and special Colombo-Kandy services were launched to compensate for rail disruptions caused by Cyclone Ditwah damage.
