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Private buses to be halved, fuel shortage blamed

26 Aug 2022

BY Buddhika Samaraweera   The Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association (LPBOA) has stated that due to the lack of sufficient fuel, the operation of private buses may decrease by more than 50% from today (26). Speaking to The Morning yesterday (25), LPBOA President Gemunu Wijeratne said that a fuel crisis is again emerging in the country. He claimed that although there is a programme for issuing the fuel required by private buses through depots belonging to the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB), most of the private buses have not received enough fuel in the last three days. “Even today (25), many of the private buses did not operate in several areas due to the insufficient supply of fuel. If sufficient fuel is not received today, private bus operations may decrease by more than 50% tomorrow (26). This will greatly inconvenience the people. Therefore, we request the Government to immediately provide fuel for private buses without any shortage,” he said yesterday. Minister of Transport and Highways Dr. Bandula Gunawardana was not available for comment. The country has been hit by several issues over the past few months with the prevailing economic crisis caused by the deficit of US dollar reserves. Over the last few months, many arrivals of stocks of fuel have been delayed, and the country is facing a shortage of fuel. Given the fuel shortage in the country, the operation of private buses remained at a very low capacity in the recent past, following which the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Power and Energy have initiated a programme to issue fuel to private buses through SLTB depots.


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