Chairman of Lanka Private Bus Owners Association Gemunu Wijeratne recently said that his organisation had urged the Government to bring the operations of the private bus service which is now under the supervision of the Provincial Councils, under the government.

"The Provincial Councils have not done anything to improve the standards of the private bus services and it has deteriorated over the years," he said.

Wijeratne told The Island that once this was done the services could be streamlined and more buses deployed for the convenience of the commuters in the nights.

Though the National Transport Commission had undertaken to implement 20 new time tables, so far, they have been able to implement only one, he said.

"If the new plan is implemented properly, the bus companies formed under the new scheme, will have to contribute to the EPF and ETF to the tune of Rs 9 billion as there are about 45,000 crew members altogether" he said.

The number of working hours of the crew would also be curtailed. Now they worked around 16 hours a day. Under the proposed scheme, the working hours would be reduced to 8-10 hours, he said.

Wijeratne lamented that the bus crews had already changed the pattern of the uniforms given to them by removing pockets etc which was against the regulations.

However, he said, the sponsor supplying uniforms, Dialog which provided four sets of uniforms to the crews would provide another two sets for the crews operating on the main routes.

"We will be introducing a tamper proof machine by 2010 where the tickets will be issued with the insertion of a card. This will help curb the bus crews misappropriating the collection of revenue which is around 25% now" Wijeratne said.