State govt plans to rescue ailing bus companies - Star

Jul 28, 2009

THE Perak Government is mulling over various options to help stage bus operators who are incurring yearly losses.

State Executive Councillor Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon, who is in charge of public transportation, said one of the reasons was because they were competing with each other on the same routes.

“They are also facing problems such as buying insurance coverage, insufficient diesel subsidy and ri-sing costs of spare parts,” he said.

He was speaking to reporters after chairing a meeting with bus operators and state Road Transport Department director Md Yasir Mastakim on Saturday.

“The bus operators had suggested that the state government conduct a feasibility study on taking over as insurers,” he said.

Dr Mah added that he would hold a series of meetings with the state Economic Planning Unit, Commercial Vehicles and Licensing Board as well as bus operators to try to come up with amicable so-lutions.