Sisu Saviya school bus service to be expanded

Stanley Seneviratne Kurunegala North group correspondent

KURUNEGALA: The Transport Ministry will expand the Sisu Saviya school bus service islandwide in collaboration with private bus operators, Transport Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said.

The Minister said the main aim of the National Transport Commission (NTC) was to cover 55 per cent of the school bus service by December 2008.

He pointed out that funds to implement the project would be released by the Treasury to purchase buses for the Sisu Saviya programme.

The Minister said President Mahinda Rajapaksa was keen on providing an efficient and safe transport service to school children and the Cabinet had approved to purchase 300 buses for the Sisu Saviya school bus service.

The NTC expects to use about 1,000 private and SLTB buses for the Sisu Saviya by January.

The Minister said private bus operators who register with the NTC for the Sisu Saviya programme would get a subsidy from the Commission to cover their losses as they were required to charge only 10 per cent of the normal bus fare. The Sisu Saviya is a service and the NTC does not expect to make a profit from it. Even though private bus operators could not ply their buses at a loss, they also must think of rendering a service.

Minister Alahapperuma emphasised that the driver and the conductor must behave like parents to children.

Private school buses will be painted in a separate colour provided by the Commission free of charge for easy identification, NTC Chairman Amal Kumarage said.