Due to the success of the Sahasara initiative in resolving transport issues launched by the Central Province Transport Ministry overseen by the Strategic Enterprise Management Agency (SEMA) in a new initiative under the Presidential Secretariat, President Maithripala Sirisena has instructed the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development and the Transport Ministry to implement this programme island wide.
The Sahasara project was initiated as a solution to the transport problems affecting the country’s workforce.
The transport issue directly affected the country’s economy while commuters are unable to travel on time, congestion in public transport, resultant fatigue, traffic congestion and lack of disciplined transport service which affects the people of this country. In addition the reduction in revenue for the bus owners which leads to competition and this in turn impacts on the commuters.
However, according to a survey, in 2008, 65 percent of the population used public transport, while currently only 40 percent of the general public use public transport.
It revealed that the reason for the reduction in numbers using public transport was that due to the unreliability and issues in the transport sector, people have opted for other alternative modes of private transport.
As a result the number of motorcycles and three wheelers has increased resulting in massive traffic congestions.
Although roads are being renovated and new roads being built, the number of vehicles entering the roads have been increasing steadily.
Meanwhile, the Sahasara project directors pointed out that the transport sector in the country has collapsed despite 22,000 private and 5,500 SLTB busses being deployed for service.
The private busses and SLTB busses had agreed to implement a joint time table, but after a short trial period it had failed.
They further pointed out that as the private bus service is operated as a self employment business, this has resulted in fierce competition which eventually flouts all discipline including flouting road rules.
The solution presented by Sahasara to resolve this issue was to calculate the collective revenue based on the number of busses plying that particular route, rather than on the number of passengers per bus.
Accordingly, the total earnings per day will be divided among the busses that were in service that particular day and according to the number of trips done by each bus.
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