Road Passenger Transport Authority of Western Province (RPTA-WP) has taken measures to conduct countrydwide raids to nab buses operating under the guise of staff transport services and transporting regular passengers illegally.
RPTA-WP Chairman Prasanna Sanjeewa told the Daily News that four buses that illegally transported regular passengers on the Southern highway displaying the board “staff transport service” were seized yesterday during the sudden raid conducted at the Kottawa interchange on Southern Highway with the assistance of the Highway Patrol Division. Ten buses were raided and four buses out of them were found transporting regular passengers.”We will take legal action against these four buses,” he added.
It has been observed that the passengers of these buses were standing while the buses were running on the highways.
The Authority has received a number of complaints that some buses displaying the board “Staff Transport Services” stop at various places along the roads and pick up regular passengers. We received lots of complaints from the owners of licenced passenger transport buses,”. It is illegal, as all short-distance buses should have route permits issued by the Road Passenger Transport Authorities in respective areas to transport regular passengers and all long-distance buses should obtain route permits from the National Transport Commission.
Under existing laws,the staff transport services can only transport the staff of the particular organization and they cannot pick up regular passengers from roads. We are working on introducing a new ordinance for the staff transport service to supervise and improve its operations,” he added.
“We will conduct further raids to nab these buses across the country with the assistance of the Police,” he added.
by Daily News Sri Lanka
, Local, ,