SPTC gets 24 new buses |27 August 2018

The Seychelles Public Transport Corporation (SPTC) has received 24 new TATA buses from the Indian government.

The buses arrived in the country on Monday last week.

It was the Indian high commissioner to Seychelles, Dr Ausaf Sayeed, who symbolically presented the keys of the buses to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Climate Change Wallace Cosgrow, in a small hand-over ceremony held at the company’s headquarters, Latanier Road on Saturday morning.

The buses, which have cost around R700,000 each, have been specifically designed to suit the needs of the elderly and the disabled.

Present at the hand-over ceremony were the secretary of state for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Barry Faure, the chairman of SPTC Andy Moncherry, other board members and staff of SPTC among other invitees.

The 24 large capacity buses can carry 72 passengers with 52 seated and 20 standing. New features on the buses are steps on the two doors (front and back doors) that unfold before the door opens for the benefit of disabled persons and the elderly. Seat belts are also available for the front row seats reserved for them.

The buses, which will be on the road as from tomorrow, are also equipped with ventilation system (fans) and stop light indicators. The seats are anti-vandal with sponge in the front and fiber glass on the back.

“The back of the seats are where most of the acts of vandalism occur as commuters tear up the seats from behind, so the fiberglass will help us save on the amount of money spent on repairs,” said the company’s deputy chief executive Maxwell Julie.

According to chief executive Patrick Vel, the 24 buses, on account of their large capacity, will replace old buses on Mahé only and buses will be available for replacement on Praslin in the next batch.

“SPTC was going to launch a new bus schedule for the different routes this week but as it is now that we are receiving the buses and our capacity to support the new bus schedule was affected in the fire, the management has decided to postpone the launch, rework on the schedule and launch it early in January 2019,” Mr Vel said.

Speaking on the occasion, High Commissioner Sayeed said the arrival of the buses will go a long way in easing the lives of the commuters and also that of SPTC given that most of its spares were destroyed in the fire.

“On the special request made by the Seychelles government, we are also working on a mechanism to find ways of getting the spare parts quickly so that the existing buses which are dependent on the spare parts do not break down and become unroadworthy because of lack of spare parts,” he said, hailing the capacity building arrangement for the maintenance of the buses between SPTC and TATA. HC Sayeed said that India will continue to help and partner with Seychelles.

For his part, Minister Cosgrow said the donation symbolises the excellent relationship that exists between Seychelles and India and the cooperation in the provision of new buses dates back over three decades.

“These new buses are part of SPTC’s fleet replacement programme and will give a significant boost to existing fleet of buses of the corporation to meet the ever growing demand for services,” he said, thanking the Indian government for the donation.    

The arrival of these buses comes from a grant of $3.5 million from the Indian government to SPTC to purchase 71 buses from TATA Motors. The announcement of the grant was made earlier in March. The first batch of 24 buses arrived in the country on August 20 and the second fleet is expected to arrive in the next month or two.

The buses had the blessings of Reverend Danny Elizabeth from the Anglican Church and Deacon Louis Agathine from the Catholic Church.

SPTC operates 89 routes on a daily basis.