Members of the Penang-based Citizens for Public Transport Coalition (Cepat) had a fruitful meeting with several top officials of the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (CVLB) in the island today.

And more encouragingly for coalition members was the fact that the CVLB officials agreed to look into the various issues raised and proposals made at the meeting by Cepat on the sad state of public transportation in the state.

The meeting was attended by CVLB chairperson Markiman Kobiran and its northern region chairperson Shah Headan Ayoob Shah.

After several failed attempts to meet the CVLB head to address their woes, Cepat members were happy with the manner in which the board received the points and suggestions raised by them, said Cepat member Joachim Xavier.

Almost all the demands conveyed to the agency - including the setting-up of Penang Citizens' Advisory Board for public transport and an independent monitoring mechanism to oversee enforcement - were accepted by CVLB, said Xavier.

The meeting - chaired by state Local Government and Traffic Management Committee chairman Dr Teng Hock Nan - was held at Komtar in Penang.

In contrast to the last 'revamp' of the bus system that occurred in April last year, CVLB had also agreed in principle on the need for an open tender process to choose a bus operator for a proposed state-owned Bus Negri Pulau Pinang (BNPP).

As part of this revamp, BNPP is slated to purchase 150 new buses with a loan from the federal government of RM200 million.

The meeting also saw the promise by CVLB to look into Cepat's demand that bus operators with track records of flouting CVLB and other transportation laws be disqualified from participating in the bidding process.

"We are happy that CVLB met us and that they heard patiently all the things that we had to say," said Xavier, an officer with the Penang Office for Human Development, when contacted after the meeting.

The unsolved issues

Only a few matters of concern, however, were left unsettled and were not adequately addressed by Markiman and his officers, said Xavier.

Cepat, he said, is disappointed with the failure of CVLB to provide a time-frame for the setting-up of the BNPP and the implementation of the new busing system.

"Without such a time frame, the coalition fears that all of CVLB's promises will be forgotten as they have been in the past," said Xavier.

The coalition is also apprehensive about whether CVLB, with its manpower and resource constraints, will be able to undertake the re-haul of Penang's public transportation system, he added.

"There was no commitment by Markiman on these things. However, we are willing to wait and see how things develop," he said.

Cepat hopes to have another meeting with Markiman within the next three months to check on the developments. The coalition expects, however, the new bus system - including BNPP - to be up and running by June this year.

Failing that, Cepat always has recourse to taking legal action with the use of the Specific Relief Act 1950 to ensure that the CVLB carries out their statutory duties as required by the CVLB Act 1987, said Xavier.