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Pvt. buses to remain in operation

08 Nov 2020

  • Govt. urged to strengthen safety measures
 By Sarah Hannan The Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association (LPBOA) urged the Government to take immediate steps to ensure the safety of the passengers and the bus industry, given the present health conditions the country is facing due to Covid-19. The LPBOA stated that the association and its members were very concerned about the pandemic’s threat level at present, and did not want to play the part of transporting the virus to the entire country. “As the second wave of Covid-19 emerged, we presented several suggestions to the Ministry of Transport to ensure that the safety of the passengers and the wellbeing of the driver and the conductor of the buses was protected. The recent outbreak of Covid-19 seems much more virulent than the previous time and we cannot take this lightly,” LPBOA Chairman Gemunu Wijerathne told The Morning. According to the LPBOA, with the recent developments in the country, with quarantine curfew being imposed and more infections getting reported daily, they had considered withdrawing from providing transportation services to the public. “We have to look at the practicality of providing our service to the people who have to commute to work from home, in areas where the curfew is relaxed. Since we can only take passengers at half our seating capacity, we will have to look at providing the bus service according to the demand,” Wijerathne elaborated. Below are some of the suggestions the LPBOA made to the Ministry last month:
  • To increase the bus ticket fare to that of the semi-luxury bus fare
  • Transport passengers only to the end destination and have buses operating to various travel destinations for short-distance travel. This will then ease the burden on the bus drivers as they would not have to stop the bus at various locations and thereby can ensure the health and safety of the people who are accessing their service
  • Buses are to maintain contact tracing log books, where passengers will enter their contact details, thereby enabling the bus conductors/drivers to alert them if necessary
In addition to the above, the buses were to ensure that all passengers will be subjected to health screening and sanitation procedures prior to boarding the bus at the main bus stop. This would include:
  • Checking passengers’ temperatures
  • Passengers to be asked to sanitise or wash their hands before boarding the bus
  • Masks will have to be worn correctly throughout the journey
  • Moreover, the conductor is to sit at a dedicated seat appointed at the front entrance of the bus, where passengers will have to purchase the ticket when boarding the bus
  • Passengers will not be allowed to engage in conversation
  • Passengers will have to provide the correct contact details to the bus operator when filling the contact tracing log book
Wijerathne noted that the Government should have had this mechanism in place by the time the quarantine curfew was lifted. Furthermore, he stated that they are compelled to operate their bus routes as there are many whose survival depends on daily/monthly earnings, and if it comes to a standstill, they will not have a way to feed their families or pay their leases. In October, the Ministry of Transport was to draft a national transport policy that was to be adopted by the state transport service. However, the said policy is yet to be publicised, meaning the private bus services are fulfilling the transport needs of a larger segment of society amidst a pandemic with no applicable guidelines or safety measures.  

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