JESSE RAMDEO

Se­nior Re­porter

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has an­nounced that all Bus Route pass­es cur­rent­ly in cir­cu­la­tion — to­talling more than 625 — will be of­fi­cial­ly re­called by Ju­ly 1, 2025.

The de­ci­sion, she said, fol­lows con­cerns that a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of these pass­es were is­sued with­out prop­er doc­u­men­ta­tion or ver­i­fi­ca­tion.

Speak­ing at a post cab­i­net press brief­ing on Thurs­day, the Prime Min­is­ter em­pha­sized the need for stricter over­sight and ac­count­abil­i­ty in the pub­lic trans­port sys­tem, par­tic­u­lar­ly in re­la­tion to bus route per­mis­sions.

Per­sons in pos­ses­sion of bus route pass­es will be re­quired to reap­ply and sub­mit all rel­e­vant qual­i­fi­ca­tions and sup­port­ing doc­u­ments to be re­con­sid­ered for route ac­cess.

The move is part of a broad­er gov­ern­ment ini­tia­tive aimed at clean­ing up the trans­porta­tion sec­tor, en­sur­ing on­ly qual­i­fied op­er­a­tors are grant­ed ac­cess to des­ig­nat­ed routes.