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Thursday, 11 December 2014 00:54 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Sarah Hannan
The Ministry of Transport yesterday entered in to a joint collaboration with Maju Group of Malaysia yesterday to transform the country’s public transportation infrastructure.
Ministry of Transport Secretary Dhammika Perera (left) and Maju TMAS MD Roslan Dato’ Sharrif exchange the documents as Malaysia’s former PM Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and Maju Group of Malaysia Group Executive Chairman Tan
Sri Abu Sahid Mohamed look on – Pic by Upul Abayasekara
The formal documents were signed and exchanged between Ministry of Transport Secretary Dhammika Perera and Maju TMAS Managing Director Roslan Dato’ Sharrif at a press conference held in Colombo.
Bearing witness to the event were Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and Maju Group of Malaysia Group Executive Chairman Tan Sri Abu Sahid Mohamed and Sri Lanka Railways GM Vijaya Amaratunga.
With nine bus terminals and a train station located at the heart of the city, commuters amounting over 600,000 converge in Pettah on a daily basis. Regardless of these modes of commute, people have to face a daily struggle to get from point A to B and to get in to the connecting bus/train on time.
As permanent and sustainable solution for the above issue under a concept of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Transport Minister Kumara Welgama has initiated a project to construct an efficient, comfortable multimodal transport centre connecting train, bus, BRT, monorail, taxi, three wheels.
“Acting up on a request by Minister of Defence and Urban Development Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a team of officials from the Ministry of Transport visited Malaysia to study the multimodal transport hubs that are in operation. Our attention was drawn to the Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS), integrated transport Hub located in Kuala Lumpur. We identified TBS as the most suitable modal for Colombo District and contacted Maju TMAS who are responsible for the operation and management of the same,” Secretary Perera noted.
“This joint collaboration is based on a pro bono basis where Maju TMAS will share our expertise and experience and act as consultants for the proposed project. With the signing of this agreement we will be starting the initial ground work and offer our consultancy to the Sri Lankan Government. The conceptualisation of the project will take place within the next 12 months and the project can be implemented soon after,” Maju TMAS MD Sharrif explained.
Responding to the speculations about the roster mergers between the Transport Board and the Private Bus Owners’ Association, Perera noted that with the implementation of the proposed integrated transport hubs it would be beneficiary to go ahead with the roster merger.
“In keeping with the Government policy, the roster share would go on a 60%-40% basis. However, in certain areas, if you take the Colombo-Matara route as an example, the Government only has a 10% share while the private bus owners enjoy 90% of the schedules.”
The terminals are suggested to be implemented in Moratuwa, Kottawa, Ragama and Negombo, while the pilot terminal is set to be implemented in Kottawa. With the launch of integrated transport hubs, the Government expects to ease the daily commute to the main Cities from suburbs.
