National Transport Commission is working on an action plan to ease traffic congestion and reduce environmental pollution in the city of Colombo by introducing measures that will promote public transport and discourage car travel.
The action plan was discussed with the stakeholders and consensus has been reached on the following projects.
Formulate Urban Transport Policy in consultation with the Ministry of Transport
Introduce well designed bus lanes to give priority to buses.
To reduce empty truck movements to and from the city and encourage movements of heavy goods vehicles during off peak periods and at night.
To introduce a premium bus service in Colombo and suburbs.
To develop Bastiyan mawatha bus terminal as a modern inter-provincial passenger terminal with Transit Orianted Development on a Public-Private Partnership.
To improve the quality of bus service, reduce the number of buses terminating in the city and reduce overlapping routes, re-routing and implementing time tables.
To introduce Flexible Working Hours and Staggered work hours
To amend the National Transport Commission Act to provide among other things to form bus Companies to replace single bus owners to enable development of a professionally managed bus industry
