Dili, 6 september 2023 (TATOLI)- The Minister of Telecommunication and Transportation (MTC) through its National Land and Transportation Timor-Leste (NDLT) acknowledged 16 public shelters are still being abandoned due to no legal framework to regulate Public transportation to stop in every station prepared by the Government.
National Director of NDLT, Antonio Da Costa said 16 shelters were established in Indonesia period and now are not functioning but NDTT has planned to rehabilitate these stations to be used.
“We have planned to build more than 64 new stations for transportation across Dili town and also include four bus stations. It helps public transportation such as taxis, mini busses, and buses to be stopped and wait for the passengers, and also to reduce the traffic in the capital” National Director of NDTT, Antonio Da Costa told Tatoli Agency, in his office, Bilide, this Wednesday.
To build this, NDTT needs the government decree law and regulation to control it.
“Until now we do not have a law to regulate all the public transport, even though we already had 16 stations across Dili,” he explained
Costa said that NDTT has called on the public transportation owners or any company to get more information on the function of the public transport parking station in Dili town.
“We called to all public transportation owners or companies to cooperate with NDTT to function in public shelters and the public transportation allows to stop for 5 minutes only while those who do not comply with the rules will pay a fine,” he said.
He added that for this to work, cooperation with the Police National of Timor Leste (PNTL) is necessary to ensure the use of public shelters effectively.
So far, in 2022 NDTT the preview government has designed the master plan for 64 new shelters in Dili town. This project will be supported by the ASEAN Development Bank (ADB) and the project will be implemented by the Australian PARU company. However, the project is a temporary delay due to the new government.
It is known that currently there are 16 public shelters including three bus stations across Dili.
Journalist: José Belarmino De Sá
Editor: Nelia B.
