THE INDIGENOUS Bus Owners Association of Solomon Islands (IBOASI) will re-submit their proposal to Honiara City Council after it failed to act on it since 2015.
This came after buses have protested HCC’s re-introduced long bus route on Tuesday citing costs of fuel and bad road conditions in and on the outskirts of the city.
Chairman Samson Maeniuta said IBOASI had accepted the move by HCC to re-introduce the long bus route.
However in response, Mr Maeniuta said there are two options that HCC needs to take into account.
“The first option is buses will increase their fares to $5.
“The second option is to pay bus fares according to zones,” he added.
Mr Maeniuta said zone zero starts at HCC bus stop to Hot Bread Kitchen at Point Cruz because of the round about to allow buses to turn to East or West Honiara.
He said for East Honiara, zone one starts at Didao and ends at King George Six.
Furthermore, Mr Maeniuta said for West Honiara, zone one starts at Rove and ends at White River.
He said the idea of zones came about because HCC does not have a bus station like other countries in Pacific.
As such, from zone zero to zone 1, it costs $3. But if the bus continues into zone two, then you have to pay an extra $2 to reach $5.
Or in other words, if you take a bus from zone zero to zone two, it will cost you $5.
Mr Maeniuta said these two options had been submitted to HCC during the reign of former Mayor, Alfrence Fatai.
However, HCC had not acted on these two options until today.
Moreover, Mr Maeniuta said he is still to make an economic calculation on the bus fares in Honiara.
He believes the bus fare in Solomon Islands is the lowest compared to other countries in the Pacific because of the exchange rate.
“In Fiji, its currency is four times than Solomon Islands.
“In Australia, AUD$2 is like $10 to $12 SBD,” he added.
Mr Maeniuta said he will need to collect enough information to make an economic calculation before presenting it to HCC.
IBOASI plans to meet with HCC next Friday.
By EDDIE OSIFELO
