KINGSTON, Jamaica  — Twenty-three routes now served by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) are being turned over to route taxi operators.

Transport Minister Daryl Vaz said 11 of the 23 are now being served by route taxis.

He was speaking Wednesday at the weekly post-cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.

“The Transport Authority and the JUTC have finalised the conversion of 11 JUTC routes to route taxi routes. During this licensing period, the authority has commenced accepting applications for these routes to allow hackney carriage operators to convert to route taxis and provide legitimate service along these routes,” said Vaz.

He added that “This will remove the element of conflict with the authorities and the risk associated with prosecution and seizure of vehicles for operating contrary to their road licences; provide for the attachment of an approved fare structure for these routes and provide a reliable means of transport for the travelling public”.

Stating that the steering committee has decided to make another 12 JUTC routes available for taxis, Vaz said “This will ensure the taxi operators who have been operating on these routes for some time, have the right to an appropriate fare structure”.

He said the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation was exploring partner arrangements at the Pechon Street Transportation Centre, and dismissed talk that the JUTC, the State-owned bus company, was competing with public transport operators.

“It’s absolutely not true, what we’re doing is streamlining and making sure that what JUTC can’t manage because they don’t have the fleet, rather than holding it as exclusive, we release it so that new routes, 23 new routes [are available] in the KMTR (Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region,” he said.