Bendy buses were still tightly packed in Floriana yesterday, despite supposed export commitments . Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

Eighty bendy buses that were supposed to have been exported to Sudan last month are still parked in Horns Works ditch, Floriana.

Sources close to Transport Malta said that despite the commitment by the new owner to export the former Arriva vehicles, no date has yet been set.

The Mercedes buses were bought by a private company in a call for tenders last February after they were forced off the road following several fires in their engines.

The Transport Ministry has so far declined to name the company that bought the buses but Times of Malta yesterday tracked down its owner, Joseph Cassar, who also owns Calypso Garage in Luqa.

He acknowledged that JDG Holdings Ltd had bought the buses for a total of €602,000 but declined to say why the buses had not yet left the island.

“We are a private company and so we are not bound to give you any information on this deal,” he said.

When it was pointed out to him that the Transport Ministry had issued a press release stating that “the buyer is duty bound to export these buses within four weeks from the signing of the contract”, Mr Cassar said: “This was a gross mistake by the ministry.”

Asked to confirm whether the buses will be going to Sudan, Mr Cassar likewise declined to confirm anything.

Stating buyer was duty bound to export buses within four weeks was a gross mistake by the ministry

The question of why the buses were still in Malta was also put to the Transport Ministry, which did not reply.

The bendy buses were ordered off the roads last summer, when Arriva was still operating the service, after a series of fires were later found out to be related to poor maintenance and over usage in Malta’s ‘extreme’ hot weather conditions.

The order was, apparently, the last straw for Arriva, already hit by losses, which decided to pull out of its 10-year contract to run Malta’s public transport system.

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Party yesterday called for a review of the situation after it was revealed that the government-operated public transport system has lost more than €7 million in the first three months of the year.

PN spokesman Toni Bezzina said it was unacceptable that following the criticism made by the government of Arriva, the public was now ending up paying, through taxes, much more than it used to for a poorer service.

He also said that the government’s actions and mismanagement had led to a lack of interest from companies wanting to take over the service – only one foreign company had submitted a bid.

This was a far cry from the “huge interest” Transport Minister Joe Mizzi had boasted about before the closure of bidding, Mr Bezzina said.