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Road traffic accidents have increased drastically in Sri Lanka recent past and the number of partial and total disabilities is also in increasing trend. Also, the number of deaths due to road traffic accidents is also in the rise.

Therefore, it has been decided that the awareness to minimize road traffic accidents should be started at the school level and accordingly the National Council for Road Safety, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Transport and Highways and Ministry of Public Security have jointly planned to establish forums on road safety in every school.

Through this programme, various practical activities will be introduced at the grade level curriculum to give special knowledge about road safety to the school students, and this is planned to commence from 3^rd April, 2024.

It is also planned to award medals to the students in order to create enthusiasm for these activities of the said forums, and this medal programme will be upgrade up to the Presidential medals status in future. A special feature of this program is that any President Medal winner will be exempted from the requirement of the written test when applying for a new driving license.

AS a part of this programme, it is expected to prepare teacher training programmes on road safety in the Faculties of Teacher Training as well. Further, necessary steps are to be taken in the future to introduce this programme to the pre-school level too.

The buildings related to the railway stations owned by the Sri Lanka Railways are centralized in urban areas with very high commercial value. Considering the current use of those buildings and lands owned by the Sri Lanka Railways, it has been confirmed that their economic potential has not been utilized positively yet.

Marking a unique turning point in the journey towards sustainable development through innovation in the transport sector, there is a high potential to develop the land and buildings around Colombo as commercial centers. Therefore, a joint proposal on “improving and modernization of the old railway stations and converting to commercial centers under the Public Private Partnership “was made to the Cabinet of Ministers by the Urban Development Authority, Sri Lanka Railways and other related stakeholders and was approved. Accordingly, a new system is being prepared by the Ministry of Transport and Highways for the implementation of above proposal.

6 railway stations i.e. Wellawatta, Bambalapitiya, Kolpity Dehiwala, Mount Lavinia, and Slave Island have been proposed for the initial phase of this project. Apart from this, the Ministry of Transport and Highways is also considering other railway stations for which the investors expressed their interest.

Primary responsibility of the public sector is the development of infrastructure, although the specialty of this new project proposed as a business modality and will be implemented in a way to get financial benefit along with the development of the infrastructure. It is also expected to provide facilities for the people as well as for commercial activities so that the people can adapt to a comfortable lifestyle by meeting the multiple needs through the railway stations that are being reconstructed. Furthermore, as an indirect benefit of this project, the beautification of the city will enhance by increasing the local and foreign tourist attraction and thus the contribution to the promotion of the tourism sector will be enormous.

In order to fulfil the said objectives, the Ministry of Transport and Highways has made an open invitation to local and foreign investors to express their interest from 01^st April 2024 onwards and the detailed information and guidelines will be provided to the investors/ public by the www.transport.gov.lk website.

A large percentage of the daily deaths in Sri Lanka is due to road traffic accidents and the main reasons are recklessness and carelessness of the drivers. The Ministry of Transport and Highways and the National Transport Commission (NTC) have jointly planned to launch a new mechanism to prevent such accidents.

A new system has now been introduced to inform the relevant institutions immediately regarding the oppressive conditions faced by the public on a daily basis due to the quality of the buses in operation, imperfections, careless driving etc.

According to aforementioned system, NTC have made facilities to inform them of the difficulties faced by the passengers by contacting NTC via phone, fax, email, WhatsApp or letters. The objective of the National Transport Commission and the Ministry of Transport and Highways, is to take measures according to these complaints in order to minimize the inconvenience caused to the commuters, and provide a safe and comfortable transport system.

Accordingly, passengers have been given the opportunity to direct their complaints to Hotline - 1955 / WhatsApp - 0712595555 / email - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / Fax - 0112503725, 0112058138 or to the write to National Transport Commission and sent letters to No. 241, Park Road, Colombo 05.

The Ministry of Transport and Highways and the National Transport Commission kindly request the passengers to support this initiative by informing the National Transport Commission about the difficulties faced by unsafe and careless bus driving and using the methods mentioned above. NTC wished to take legal action also as appropriate against the responsible based on these complaints.

National Transport Commission (NTC) has approved Permanent route permits for the temporarily assigned route permits based on passenger needs have been permanently assigned to the same routes.

During the last period, a group of permanent road permit holders under the National Transport Commission have been temporarily revised for other roads based on the demand of passengers. According to an order given by the court, the road permits given temporarily converted into permanent permits of the same route by charging the prescribed technical values and offered to the permit holders under the chairmanship of the Hon. Minister of Transport, Highways and Mass Media, Dr. Bandula Gunawardena at the Ministerial Auditorium on 14^th March

At present, there is a surplus of passenger transport buses in the country and people are gradually moving away from the use of public passenger transportation. Hon State Minister, Mr. Lasantha Alagiyawanna stated on this occasion that everyone should contribute to the successful implementation of public transport services by providing passenger friendly service to the commuters and to rectify this situation. Also, he expressed that no new road permits will be issued in the future for any other reason except under urgent circumstances, and buses will be operated systematically according to a formal integrated timetable.

Hon. State Minister of Transport, Mr. Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Highways, Eng. Ranjith Ganganath Rubasinghe including Additional Secretaries of the Ministry, Chairman of the National Transport Commission, Mr. Shashi Welgama alone with the other officials of the institution and permit holders were participated for this event.