{"id":107389,"date":"2020-10-08T16:54:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T23:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=107389"},"modified":"2020-10-08T16:54:04","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T23:54:04","slug":"building-buses-coaches-and-lorries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/08\/building-buses-coaches-and-lorries\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Buses, Coaches and Lorries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garvin Karunaratne former Government Agent, Matara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Buses, coaches, lorries and\nvans  can easily be built in Sri Lanka  using local timber. There are good carpenters\nwho are experts at the job . When I was a young boy in the Forties I lived near\nthe South Western Bus Co in Ratmalana and have seen coaches been built by our\nworkmen. At that time every bus, coach and lorry  was built in\nSri Lanka. It is seen that from 1978 the import of chassis with engines has\nbeen drastically reduced while the import of buses, coaches, lorries and vans  has increased. It can be estimated that  the cost of a chassis with an engine  can be estimated at approximately  30% of the total cost  of a built\nup bus, coach, lorry or van. Thus if chassis with engines are imported the cost\nin terms of foreign exchange  would be\napproximately 70% less. Local workers would have found employment. In the\ncurrent situation local workmen are idle and unemployed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imports(Rs.millions)  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year              Buses &\nCoaches              Lorries\n& Vans            Chassis\nwith engines  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1978            \n 29.2                                  \n237.0                          407.4  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1985          \n 273.9                                  \n701.6                            53.6  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The import of chassis has\ndwindled while the import of built up buses and coaches and lorries and vans\nhas increased.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Extract from: How the\nIMF Ruined Sri Lanka & Alternative Prorammes of Development, Godages, 2006.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ratmalana was the home of the\nSouth West Bus Co one of the major bus companies and all its buses were built\nat Ratmalana.  The  Moratuwa Railway Workshops  built the railway coaches on imported chassis.\nIn Moratuwa and Ratmalana, before 1978, thousands of carpenters were at work.\nAt Werahera there was a major Workshop, fully equipped with all sort of\nmachinery to make buses, coaches. Then every bus,coach and lorry in the country\nwas of local make. Even today there are lone carpenters who build lorries on\nsecond hand chassis.  Now with built up\nimports we provide employment for workers in other countries and we also spend  fantastic amounts in foreign exchange for\nimports.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is hoped that this is an\nareas where immediate action can be taken. As the Additional Government Agent\nat Kegalla I had the opportunity to see for myself a lorry being built on a\nchassis. This was for the purpose of building a float for a procession. It was\ndone extremely well and after the occasion it was converted to a lorry and\nsold.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an area for immediate\naction to provide employment and incomes and also to save our foreign exchange.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is something we did successfully earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today the Government is hoping to find investors. Investors can be local or foreign. The Government is courting behind foreign investors in the hope that they bring us foreign funds.\u00a0 No foreign investors are coming to Sri Lanka to build coaches and lorries. The Government itself has to invest in setting up workshops equipped with machinery to make busses, coaches, and lorries. Simultaneously the Government has to stop the import of buses, coaches, and lorries. The thinking of the Private Sector in Sri Lanka today is to find a fast income before the Government changes its policy and the investment is lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus it is hoped that the Government will immediately establish workshops to make buses, coaches, and lorries.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne<\/p>\n\n\n\n

former Government Agent, Matara<\/p>\n\n\n\n

08092020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Garvin Karunaratne former Government Agent, Matara Buses, coaches, lorries and vans  can easily be built in Sri Lanka  using local timber. There are good carpenters who are experts at the job . When I was a young boy in the Forties I lived near the South Western Bus Co in Ratmalana and have seen coaches been built […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}