JUTC to refurbish old buses

Nadisha Hunter, Staff Reporter

Commuters could see an improvement in the transportation service offered by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) soon, with the company undertaking rehabilitation of hundreds of its old and out-of-service units, which had been originally earmarked for disposal as scrap metal.

Twenty-seven of the 300 buses that were set aside for scrap heap will be refurbished in the first phase by representatives from the Brazilian firm Incavel (Omnibus E Pecas), which undertook a pilot project of rehabilitating a badly damaged 2002 JUTC bus.

Speaking at the launch of the JUTC bus-refurbishing project yesterday at the Portmore bus depot, Paul Abrahams, managing director of the JUTC, said Jamaica's manpower would also be boosted by the agreement with Incavel.

"We want to have this programme benefiting the JUTC not only from refurbishing a bus … we went into a transfer of technology which would be to have the JUTC maintenance staff under the guidance of Incavel be trained as to how to refurbish a bus from start to finish, from top to bottom," he said.

Training for technicians

Abrahams said further that two of the JUTC technicians would be trained to do air-conditioning system work and another person to do repair of superstructure.

"The transfer of technology is critical to this. If we are able to pull a bus out of the system in six years and refurbish that bus and put it back in the system for another six years, we can advance our rolling stock for 15 to 18 years without having to replace buses along the way," he added.

He told The Gleaner that the buses will be used to ease the pressure on the commuting public in areas where buses are needed.

The first phase of the 27 buses is expected to cost US$3.5 million (J$3.1 billion).

He said based on JUTC's cap, any bus that would cost more than US$135,000 (J$12 million) to be repaired after assessment would, instead, be disposed of.

nadisha.hunter@gleanerjm.com