Today, almost 5,000 people who have used Novelo?s services have suddenly found themselves in uncertainty over how they would get to and from their varied destinations. For now, they must wait for substitute buses at makeshift, streetside terminals until a more permanent and dignified solution is put in place.
The current Novelo?s management calls the situation an ?untimely and unavoidable crisis.? It?s a crisis that has forced the Department of Transport to kick in with a massive contingency plan and thankfully, not too many commuters have been left stranded. Still, there are over 300 breadwinners who don?t know how they will provide for their families in the immediate future. According to the Novelo?s management, they will only be paid up until the day of the shutdown because there is no more money to pay them.
We are informed that the receivership management had been negotiating with the Government of Belize to provide it with some of the recent import of Venezuelan fuel, which the Government received from Venezuela under generous financing terms.
On Monday, December 19, the receivership wrote GOB a letter, indicating that unless GOB provided fuel to run their fleet of buses, they would have to shut down indefinitely because they were too broke to buy fuel.
Well, Government denied the proposal, and so on Tuesday evening, December 20, Novelo Bus Lines? operations were shut down. When we visited the terminal before six o?clock on Tuesday morning, we found workers standing behind the locked gate, which bore a sign informing customers that there would be no Novelo buses running anywhere in the country.
Meanwhile, just around the corner, at the bus stop in front of the Belize City Council?s Pound Yard premises, Transport Department officials were running a makeshift operation and commuters were being directed to other buses, including the new National Transportation Services Limited buses.
National Transportation, a recently launched company, and Novelo Bus Line are owned by the same Novelo family. However, in March 2004, Atlantic Bank and the DFC took over Novelo Bus Line because the company defaulted on nearly $50 million in debt, most of it to the DFC ? a public sector development bank. The company also owes about $6 million to the Belize Bank, which we understand had been in negotiations to pay off the other two banks and have the same Novelo family run Novelo?s Bus on its behalf.