Selangor govt launches 100th Smart Selangor bus, earns spot in MBOR

SUBANG JAYA: The Selangor State government launched the 100th Smart Selangor bus today and has gotten a place in the Malaysia Book of Records (MBOR).
The Smart Selangor bus was popular with the public and saw almost 11 million passengers benefit from free bus rides, said Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.
"It is the state government's responsibility to help ease the burden of the people with the rising cost of living in Malaysia. We use our huge reserves to the benefit of the people and we have more programmes that will give back to the people of Selangor," he said in his speech during the launch at Sunway Pyramid.
The free bus rides provided by Selangor also was recognised by MBOR as "Most Number of Free Shuttle Bus Services Provided by State Government with 546,661 passengers in 2015; 4,163,654 passengers (2016) and 6,024,044 passengers till Aug 31, this year.
"The total cost for the Smart Selangor Bus programme until now is RM42.53 million with RM33.53 million paid by the state government and RM9 million paid by local authorities," Azmin said further.
He said that the aim of the state government is to reduce the usage of private vehicles and encourage the public to use public transport more.
"With this free shuttle service, more people will be encouraged to use public transport. And those who are using rail transport services like LRT or MRT, they can use this shuttle service for their first and last mile. This reduces congestion on the roads and is better for the environment," Azmin added.
Coincidentally, today also marked the third year anniversary since Azmin had assumed office as Mentri Besar and he was surprised by the organisers with well wishes and a cake.