Minister of Transport Daryl Vaz said that US$400,000 is allocated for the purchase of spare parts for the fleet of buses under the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), in preparation for the new school term starting September 2023.

He noted that the funds will also help to reduce wait time for passengers.

Currently, there are just over 100 buses rolled out daily. However, Vaz noted that 310 buses are needed to supply the demand for back-to-school.

The Minister noted that “This will include the 50 buses that we have been talking about that we ordered some time ago, the 45 diesel and the five electric buses”.

“I can say that before I came here this morning, I got the name of the vessel and tracked it for myself as I’ve been hearing about this vessel arriving for about six weeks, and I can indicate that the vessel is now entering the Panama Canal, once it passes through there it will take about two days to get to Jamaica so I expect it here between Friday and Monday,” he added.

Vaz noted that the 20 compressed natural gas units, which were ordered in May, are to arrive at the end of this year.

Additionally, he shared that the Government is moving away from fossil in diesel and have moved to CNG, which is compressed natural gas from LNG. A pilot project for five of these buses was conducted through a framework agreement with New Forest Energy.