Colombo North & Central public transport in shambles

The callous removal of buses plying on routes No 168, 112 and 102 has forced residents of Kotahena to walk even to reach Kochchikade church and back

At the end of the COVID pandemic in 2021, the residents of Colombo North came in for a rude shock. They found that the public transport system that had served them for several decades didn’t exist anymore. The Kotahena roundabout junction had been always a busy bus terminal hub with key bus routes originating for their onward journey across the city. Tragically now, no buses are found anywhere at the terminus, that now looks like a grave yard. The routes now thus terminated are: No 168 – Kotahena to Nugegoda via Fort, Slave Island, Town Hall, Borella, No 112 - Kotahena to Maharagama via Fort, Kollupitiya, Bambalapitiya, Havelock Town, Nugegoda and No 102 -  Kotahena to Ratmalana via Fort, Kollupitiya, Bambalapitiya, Wellawatte, Dehiwela. These vital routes were callously withdrawn forcing the residents of Kotahena to walk even to reach the Kochchikade church and back or they had to walk up to Hettiyawatte to catch a 145 route bus. The bus service involving the following routes too had been simply withdrawn even from earlier days. They include:  No 173 – Thotalanga to Narahenpita via Madampitiya, Mutwal, Kotchchikade, Fort, Town Hall, Jawatte, No 167 -   Thotalanga to Dehiwela via Bloemendhal (being the only bus route to cover the people of the entire Bloemendhal stretch skirting the stadium), Armour Street, Town Hall, Thunmulla Junction, Bambalapitiya, No 116 – Mattakkuliya to Piliyandala via Aluthmawatha Road, Fort, Town Hall and beyond. 

Devastating blow -Withdrawal of Route 155  

For ordinary people of Colombo North, the nasty blow came also at the end of the COVID pandemic. The arterial 155 route from Mattakkulya to Ratmalana was simply discontinued from service. This route plying along the central Aluthmawatha Road was meant to cater to people of Mattakkuliya, Modera, Bloemendhal Road and Lunupokuna. Hundreds of students travelling to the popular schools in Kotahena, Armour Street, Maradana, Colombo 7, several campuses and beyond were left stranded.  So were people visiting the General Hospital, Eye Hospital, Town Hall and their work places. What became even worse was that all the commuters arriving from outstation to Armour Street had no way to reach Town Hall and beyond.  After the publication of several articles in local newspapers a pretence was put to play. One or two 155 buses were seen only in the mornings and afternoons.Colombo North in recent times is regarded as a dilapidated peripheral reality. Earlier, it was the late Minister V.A. Sugathadasa who devoted much effort to develop this area in the 1950’s to come to par with the other notable places in the city. 
The public transportation was nationalised during the Bandaranayake era and the Ceylon Transport Board (CTB) came into being serving the people nationwide with well spread out routes running pre-dawn to mid night. With the arrival of the UNP rule in the late 1970’s, a new “one man one bus” system came into being. It operated together with the state owned CTB. This uneven marriage spelt disaster. The private bus drivers became a law unto themselves involving in recurrent fatal accidents. Thus, we have a deformed mode with a truncated public transport system with Colombo North citizens at the receiving end as described earlier. 

A pertinent question that comes to mind is this – where have all the buses that once traversed along the now absent routes covering Mattakkuliya as well as Kotahena gone? A few may have been allocated to route 145(Mattakkuliya to Slave Island) and 178 (Mattakkuliya to Narahenpita), 176 (Hettiyawatte to Nugegoda) being the only services that still exist from and through Colombo North. If so, the remaining multitude of other buses would have been ‘miss allocated’ to other parts of the city, thus making it apparently clear that the people of Colombo North do not deserve to enjoy even the basic benefits. 

We are now told that the new government in an attempt to provide a reasonably beneficial service is planning to import 1,000 buses. Can some of these buses be diverted to Colombo North? Moreover, wouldn’t it be better if the entire transport system be handed over to private companies to serve specific well assigned routes in order to run parallel with SLTB. 

Desperate appeal  

On behalf of the suffering citizens of Colombo North and Central Colombo let me appeal to the Minister of Transport to restore to normalcy the truncated public transport service. It is my hope that this appeal will gain the attention of the Premier and the President whom we have elected with confidence and look upon with renewed hope. 

  Let it be noted that the word ‘bus’ comes from the Latin term “OMNIBUS” meaning “for all”. So, may it be a system to serve all the people of Sri Lanka.