The Hon. Shantha Pathma Kumara Subasingha

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to speak on amendments to the NTC Act No. 37 of 1991. Anyone who leaves home expects to return the same day or soon. Yet in 2024 alone, 2,243 people who set out on journeys never returned. Of them, 2,141 died on the spot. From 2020 to November 2024, 11,581 died at crash sites; total road deaths over those five years were 12,140. There were 117,970 injured, including 43,000 with permanent disability and over 32,000 with other harm. This underscores the crisis in transport and road safety.

¶ 02 As the Minister said, transport has been a “non-liberated zone”. Amending the 1991 Act is a foundational operation, but not enough; we must also build infrastructure, enforce ethics, social protection, and modernize fleets. We are doing so—completing halted expressways, despite past corruption (including the Central Expressway penalties and malfeasance under former ministers). We are restarting projects suspended due to fraud and commissions. On the Ruwanpura Expressway, we met last week with the President and the Treasury Secretary; the President is focusing on early commencement. We have also allocated funds in the Appropriation for resuming the Kelani Valley (KV) line to Ruwanpura/Ratnapura; preliminary works have begun, and we will soon commence restoration, realizing a decades-long dream for Ratnapura. For resettlement and compensation along the Ruwanpura Expressway, Rs. 2,500 million has been provided. With these, Ratnapura will become a distinct development zone—including a modern bus terminal for Ratnapura and Embilipitiya under Clean Sri Lanka.

¶ 03 We must also address passenger dignity and safety: reserved seats for clergy, pregnant women and persons with disabilities are often not respected; women face harassment on buses; long-distance bus rest stops often lack acceptable food and hygiene. This Bill will enable regulation of such facilities.

¶ 04 Past governments used SLTB for political hiring. Our Government has not packed SLTB with political cadres; we are setting a different standard. To secure public transport quality, penalties must be meaningful: this Bill provides minimum fines up to Rs. 250,000, maximum Rs. 500,000, and imprisonment up to five years, with measures to prevent crashes. It also strengthens licensing criteria and evaluation for inter-provincial services and motor services.

¶ 05 Another key reform is enabling transfer of route permits with the sale of the bus, easing exit from the industry when needed. We have also launched a 24/7 affordable premium bus service between Katunayake Airport and Colombo Fort (Route 187). With legal, infrastructural and ethical reforms, and training centres for the workforce, we are confident of delivering a good public transport service within our first five years. Thank you.