Gemunu Wijeratne, President of Ceylon Private Bus Owners’ Association, said that the government is losing 500 billion rupees every year due to the lack of development of the public transport sector including railways.
Addressing a press conference, he said that this loss was discovered after a survey he conducted taking into account three-wheelers, public and government transport sectors.
He said that the survey revealed that even though one bus runs per hour not only in rural areas but also along main roads, at least 40 three-wheelers travel in the same direction during that time.
He said that this shows the poor condition of the public transport system in the country and the number of three-wheelers has increased due to the poor transport system. Currently, there are 10 lakh three-wheelers and 13,500 buses operating in the country.
He said the survey did not consider motorcycles and other modes of transportation as major factors. Therefore, he emphasized that the local transport system should be developed urgently for the development of the country