The Government will be spending $689 million to procure 50 buses to boost the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) fleet.
The allocation will provide for the purchase of 45 diesel buses and five electric vehicles, in addition to equipment to establish three charging stations.
Details are outlined in the 2023/2024 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives.
Orders have already been placed with the manufacturer, and the procurement of equipment and establishment of the charging stations will be undertaken in time for the arrival of the electric vehicles.
The JUTC is an agency of the Ministry of Transport and Mining and is the exclusive provider of public transit services in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR), Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR), which comprises Kingston, St. Andrew, and Portmore and Spanish Town in St. Catherine.
The company delivers public transport services seven days a week for up to 14 hours a day. The operations of the bus company spread across various depots in Spanish Town and Portmore in St Catherine, and Rockfort in Kingston.
In addition, buses are dispatched daily from several outstations to go as far as Longville in Clarendon.
JUTC possesses the largest driver pool in the English-speaking Caribbean, with over 1,200 experienced drivers.
