Indian assistance to increase public transport bus fleet

• 500 buses to be provided by the Indian Government

Fifty buses out of the 500 buses to be provided by the Indian Government were handed over to President Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Presidential Secretariat premises to uplift the public transport service in rural areas across the country, a statement from the President’s Media Division (PMD) said.

The documents of the buses were handed over to the President by Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay. 

The President inspected two of the buses after declaring them open by cutting the ribbons. 

These buses are provided by the Indian Government as a part of a project which is implemented in parallel to the 75th Independence Day Celebration and its first fleet of 75 buses were handed over to the Sri Lankan Government recently.  Another fleet of 40 buses has been directed to the registration and hence 165 buses have already been provided out of the 500 buses that are to be provided as per the request made by Transport Minister Bandula Gunawardena from the Indian Government. The project is to be completed by March 2023.  

The President instructed to direct these buses to all SLTB bus depots island-wide to uplift the public transport service in rural areas across the country.

Minister of Transport and Highways and Minister of Mass Media Bandula  Gunawardena, State Minister of Transport Lasantha Alagiyawanna, State Minister of Investment Promotion Dilum Amunugama, MP Rajika Wickramasinghe, MP Muditha Prishanthi, First Secretary of Indian High Commission Irina Thakur, SLTB Chairman, Commissioner General of Motor Traffic, CEO of Lanka Ashok Leyland were present at the occasion.