MONETABRIEF – Sri Lanka's National Transport Commission will call public tenders bus issue route permits for private buses, under a new cabinet approved process, Deputy Transport Minister Prasanna Gunasena said.
The new process has been approved by the cabinet and has a scheme where marks are awarded on set criteria.
"The National Transport Commission plans to issue permits for 89 routes," Deputy Minister Gunasena told parliament Thursday.
"We plan to start the procurement process in November."
He was responding to a question by opposition legislator Rohitha Abeygunawardena, who said many rural routes no longer had private buses and state-run buses ran with big gaps of three hours or more.
Minister Gunasena said the planned process applied to routes under the NTC and not the Provincial Councils.
The NTC had earned 546.6 million rupees in 2025 from issuing route permits to private bus operators. Other administrative revenues were 173 million rupees. Interest on deposits were 68.3 million.
There were 5,520 private buses registered in Western province, 2,433 in Central Province, 1326 in Southern Province, 520 in Northern Province, 1324 in North Western Province, 509 in North Central Province, 1043 in Uva Provine, and 1866 in Sabaragamuwa Province, totalling 15,570 business.
But only around 12,000 private buses operated each day, he said.
The state-run Sri Lanka Transport Board had 7,130 buses, but on a given not all were operating, he said.
Out of the SLTB total, 6,987 are normal buses, 143 are luxury buses, and none are semi luxury. (Colombo/Nov05/2026)