The Transport Ministry has selected 40 SLTB depot mechanics to be trained in India at the Leyland Company. The privilege of foreign training was earlier limited to a few, selected by politicians and confined only to white-collar workers.

Transport Minister Dallas Alahapruma told ‘The Island’ that he understood the important part played by the depot mechanics. To encourage them to work with higher motivation, the Ministry decided send them to reputed companies for advanced mechanical training. Mechanics are to be sent to different companies for extensive training.

Alahapruma said that the Transport Ministry would select 40 mechanics each year from SLTB’s 106 depots and send them abroad for training. During the training period the respective companies would spend about Rs. 100,000 for each mechanic, including lodging and meals. The Ministry would also spend Rs. 4 million each year on this programme.

Minister Alahaperuma said that the Government had decided to pay all SLTB workers Rs. 27,000 from January 2010 as the cost of living has gone up and they should not get discouraged or disheartened. Around 10,000 workers who were on contract basis would be made permanent within two months, he said. All political interference and pressure would be avoided as far as possible.

He said the Government had also decided to recruit employable sons and daughters of SLTB workers in the near future as it would encourage the workers to achieve more productivity.

All workers in the SLTB would get due promotions which had been withheld due to various reasons.

Alahapruma said, he would make every effort to give a new lease of life to the SLTB and one of his principal aims was to make the SLTB a profitable Government venture.