The Hon. (Dr.) Prasanna Gunasena - Deputy Minister of Transport and Highways

¶ 01 Thank you, Hon. Presiding Member.

¶ 02 First, a Member alleged links among containers, LTTE terrorism, foreign travel, and arms. I challenge him to repeat that outside within 24 hours or have the statement expunged for abusing parliamentary privilege.

¶ 03 Let us turn to the National Transport Commission (Amendment) Bill. In 2024, road accidents claimed 2,403 lives. From January to May 31, 2025, there were 4,728 accidents and 1,103 deaths. A month has passed since the Giriulla tragedy that killed 23, raising public concern over safety, cost, and quality of public transport. It is apt we amend a 34-year-old Act now.

¶ 04 With vehicle import restrictions eased, registrations are rising—around 21,128 in May alone. Our 119,382 km road network carries 8,528,002 vehicles: roughly 5 million motorcycles, 1.2 million three-wheelers, and about 114,000 buses.

¶ 05 Currently, the NTC regulates only inter-provincial private buses—3,179 vehicles—about 11% of total buses in public transport (which includes 19,762 intra-provincial private buses and 5,000–5,500 SLTB buses, totaling ~27,941). With this Bill, the NTC will gain 100% regulatory authority over all public service buses.

¶ 06 Beyond buses, school transport vans/buses number around 40,000; about 80,000 three-wheelers are used for public transport; and some 6,000 buses/vans serve office workers. The NTC now has no power over these; the Bill will extend regulatory authority to them. Presently, of an estimated 153,941 public-service vans and buses, only 1.9% fall under NTC oversight; after passage, all will.

¶ 07 Existing inter-provincial bus inspection standards include: silencer noise under 88 dB; cabin noise limits—non-luxury 85 dB, luxury 80 dB; horn max 105 dB; first step height 250–430 mm; doorway step 467 mm; door opening width 230 mm; single seat width 350 mm; specified seat lengths (single 382 mm; double 764 mm), among 41 checkpoints. These will apply to all buses nationwide once the Bill passes. I will table the full document.

¶ 08 The NTC will also be empowered to formulate and update a fare formula reflecting technical and cost changes.

¶ 09 We plan to introduce card payments (debit/credit) to reduce leakage—despite SLTB reporting a record daily revenue of Rs. 204 million on 12 April, daily leakage is around one crore. Private owners are like daily renters of their own buses. We aim to roll out card payments by year-end.

¶ 10 We will install GPS—starting with the Puttalam corridor and SLTB buses—to enable unified timetables. Online booking and CCTV-based monitoring will also be advanced this year.

¶ 11 We will pilot driver drowsiness/distraction detection in selected buses within three months, and build a National Public Transport Data Repository via NTC this year—data is essential.

¶ 12 The NTC will gain powers to train service providers, approve permit transfers, and impose higher fines. Illegal services (e.g., clandestine southern–northern operations) will face stiffer penalties; current Rs. 200,000 fines are insufficient deterrents.

¶ 13 Public vigilance is helping—e.g., a passenger signaled and stopped the “Sagarika” train to avoid an accident after spotting track damage; youth maintain real-time train info via apps. People still love public transport; with capable officials we can rejuvenate it.

¶ 14 I thank all NTC officers and staff dedicated to this effort.