Cabinet nod to recondition over 5,000 State-owned vehicles

• Dullas says impossible to convert State-owned vehicle fleet to eco-friendly by 2025
• Govt. mulls pilot project with 100 electric buses

The Cabinet of Ministers this week approved a move to recondition and redeploy over 5,000 vehicles currently lying unused.

According to a survey submitted by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in his capacity as the Economic Policies and Plan Implementation Minister to Cabinet, there are 82,194 vehicles belonging to State organisations and of those 5,533 not in running condition.

“We hope to repair and bring those 5,533 vehicles back to running condition. The repairs will be made at State-run servicing centres,” Cabinet Co-Spokesman and Mass Media Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said at the post-Cabinet media briefing yesterday. He said that they would also consider releasing the surplus reconditioned vehicles to the market. “Given the vehicle import restrictions and high demand, we can consider releasing any excess vehicles post reconditioning to the local market,” Alahapperuma said.

The vehicles that are not repairable will be discarded with immediate effect or given to vocational training institutions. As per the survey, around 8,500 senior officials in State institutions have been granted approval to use their private vehicles for official purposes followed by payment of a monthly allowance.

When asked if the Government could achieve the previously set target to fully convert the State-owned vehicle fleet to eco-friendly by 2025, the Minister said it was impractical, saying the process to shift would take a longer. In 2018, former Finance Minister, the late Mangala Samaraweera, in his last Budget announced plans to replace all State-owned vehicles with electric or hybrid models by 2025, a move that would be extended to private vehicles by 2040.

Alahapperuma revealed that the Government hopes to conduct a pilot project with 100 electric buses as a first step.