With world crude oil prices rocketing and affecting domestic fuel cost increases the government is reportedly showing commitment to curtailing fuel consumption by implementing several measures transport professionals had advocated for over a decade.
"The annual consumption of fuel is about 2,500 million litres and out of this public transport and freight accounts for only 800 million litres. The balance is consumed by private vehicles," Prof Kamal S. Kumarage, Chairman, National Transport Commission (NTC), told the Island Financial Review.
He said the NTC had presented a series of proposals to the Ministry of Transportation and expects a Cabinet decision soon.
By the end of this year Kumarage said a special shuttle service will be introduced to encourage vehicle owners get to work and back home.
About 70 percent of the road space in the city is taken up by private vehicles, while the balance is taken up by pubic transport, hired office transport services and goods transportation.
Thirty years ago, according to Prof Kumarage, private vehicles took up only five percent of the road space.
"There are some people who have not travelled by bus for months and even years and we want to encourage this group of people to use the specially designed shuttle service," he said.
This service will be priced at a premium, higher than the hired office transports, and will utilise luxury coaches.
Six routes have been identified and three terminals will be set up at the World Trade Centre, Navam Mawatha and Union Place.
Pending cabinet approval the NTC hoped to implement this project in three months time, according to Prof Kumarage.
Schools can now call up the NTC and request for a dedicated bus service to any area as long as 80 students use the bus service from a particular area.
"There is an excess in buses plying the city streets and if a school needs this service we will ensure that the necessary bus(es) are found. It may take time but we will deliver," Prof Kumarage said.
"There are 370 buses dedicated for this service at the moment and we hope to put out tenders for 150 more. Our target is to have 1,000 dedicated school buses by 2009."
The bus service from fort to the airport will be extended up to Bambalapitiya and an air-conditioned waiting area is to be constructed to facilitate people to use public transport rather than private vehicles. The NTC plans to roll this out by August.
The NTC is also working on an online database. This is part of its long term plans.
"It will provide matchmaking services," he said. Marrying commuters to car pools, that is.
"We also concerned about the public and we are taking several steps to introduce coordinated time tables for long distance routes. This is expected to reduce competition between the private and public sector bus operators and this could mitigate the risks of accidents."
The NTC is awaiting cabinet approval to improve bus-rail connectivity and bus to bus connectivity.
The NTC will extend existing bus routes or introduce new bus routes by the end of 2009. Some of this has already begun.
The NTC hopes the new routes will by pass the city centre at Pettah, for ever clogged.
Bus crew will also be made to wear uniforms. Issuing tickets will be enforced fully, unlike now with most bus conductors neglecting to do so.
A vehicle tracking system will be implemented so that the movement of buses can be monitored.
The NTC was lobbying to introduce alternate working hours in the city to cut down traffic and congestion by eliminating peak hours of traffic.
Staggered working hours and flexible working hours will be introduced to the city so that critical peaks in traffic can be avoided.
"A recent study conducted with the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce showed that 2/3 of the polled private sector establishments found the flexible working hour scheme to be to their advantage," he said.
Staggered working hours would, for example, split the shifts into timeslots like 8.30 am-5.00 pm, 9.00 am-5.30 pm and 9.30 am-6.00 pm and a worker can decide which would be the best time to call into to work.
Flexible working hours is where the official clock-in time would be set at 8.30 am but workers are given leverage to report to work at anytime between 8.30 and 9.00 and do their required hours of work from then onwards.
The NTC is mulling over the idea to form a Bus Operating Company which will include the entire private and public bus fleet.
Collecting a toll when entering the city is another possibility the NTC hoped to implement by 2010.
"But first we will have to improve the public bus service considerably or collecting a toll will not be successful if the idea was to cut down traffic congestion," Prof Kumarage said.
