Only the loan taken by one bus company for the purchase of buses has been paid , said Yangon Region Chief Minister Phyo Min Thein to media after the session of region parliament on June 18.

“Two bus companies took loans for the purchase of buses for Yangon Bus Service. One company’s debt has been settled. This company took Ks four billion. Another company will have to repay debts as it has bought an additional over 200 buses. They all are Foton buses. The government has a plan to buy new buses every year. We bought 1,000 buses and then allocated 500 each to two companies. The old buses can be replaced with the new ones if we buy additional 50 buses when we reach break-even,” the Chief Minister said.

There are demands for the extended operations of bus lines to Ayeyawady Region. We are thinking about the extension of the bus lines to the Ayeyawady region if the CNG is sufficient enough to run the route to and fro, he continued.

The Chief Minister said at a press conference on the region government’s third-year performance on June 5 that the region government would buy new buses after all debts had been paid off.

It has been over two years the region government shifted MaHtaTha (All Bus Lines Control Committee) to the YBS. To operate bus lines, Yangon region government has formed two companies, namely Yangon Bus Public Company (YBPC) Ltd and Yangon Urban Public Transport (YUPT) Company Ltd. The region government invested Ks 70 billion in two companies and had to take a loan of Ks eight billion from the Ayeyarwady Bank.