Cancellation of Route Permits for Violating Route Regulations

Followed by the Transport Ministry received large number of complaints from passengers as well as from the Provincial Road and Passenger Transport Authorities regarding the misconduct of inter provincial bus operators, Transport Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva has warned that the route permits of long distance buses, which stop at additional unscheduled bus halts will be cancelled as from 1 st July 2017.

Accordingly Transport Ministry had instructed the National Transport Commission (NTC) to cancel route permits of inter provincial buses that do not operate within the guideline. Inspection staff of the NTC will be deployed at bus stops to check whether the bus operators stick to the instructions provided by the Ministry. The minister had instructed the NTC Chairman to fix CCTV cameras.

Lanka Private Bus Owners Association (LPBOA) President Gemunu Wijeratne said, short distance bus operators face issues as a result of long distance bus services taking short distance passengers. This has caused several clashes between short distance bus operators and long distance bus operators.