Minister Bandula Gunawardena says that a decision will be taken next week regarding the parking of 80 buses brought to Sri Lanka before 7 years without being allowed to be taken by the relevant committees.
He points out that it has been a problem for him as well why the relevant procurement committees not allowing the use of these buses citing various reasons, which have been brought on the approval of the Cabinet.
The minister said in a press conference today to announce the cabinet decisions that these buses will be inspected next week, the reasons for parking those buses for a long period will be found and the remaining measures will be taken to put them into operation.
“For school services, we have arranged to implement a new bus program as a pilot project. There was a problem to get batteries for 800 buses that were reconditioned and put into operation, under the foreign currency crisis. He was able to solve them last week. Even after 7 years have passed, 80 buses brought by state company Ashok Leyland have been brought here and parked. Even though the cabinet has issued the permission to buy these, for some reason, it is not allowed to use them. The procurement committees still do not allow these to be used, telling various stories. I hope to go there and have a look and inform the Cabinet about this. With this I prepared to do a pilot project. The technical committees do not give approval to buy those buses. I don’t understand why. We have great advantages from this. This is not for the new exchange rate, but for the old exchange rate. This is very beneficial for us. We expect this to be implemented next week.”
