ENB plans to monitor PMVs, spare parts dealers, fuel stations

By JUNIOR UKAHA
EAST New Britain provincial Land Transport board is working on a project to synchronise all public motor vehicle (PMV) operations in the province.
Acting board chairman Charles Varvala said they were in the process of creating a project called ‘2019 transport schedule programme’.
This is being done with assistance of the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC).
The project will included collecting data from PMV operators, spare parts dealers and fuel stations.
“We will issue out forms to PMV owners, spare parts dealers and fuel stations to fill and return to us to analyse the information,” Varvala said.
“For the PMVs, we would like to know how much they make in a day, the route they travel, the number of passengers they get and how much fuel they use.
“For the spare parts dealers, we would like to know what kind of spare parts they sell, where they import them from and their prices.
“We will collect all this information and come up with a policy paper.
“It will be presented to the provincial executive council for its deliberations so that we have some policies in place.”
The exercise will cost less than K100,000.
Varvala said they were doing this to avoid being pushed around by PMV operators.
The operators tried to impose their conditions and demands on the board.
Varvala said the board had been under-performing since former chairman Allan Tovue has passed away in 2014.
“We are now rearranging ourselves and getting back to business to ensure things are running properly,” he said.