Updated: 02/06/2013 04:12

Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew says the Land Transport Authority will put some new routes under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme for tender

Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew says the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will put some new routes under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP) for tender.

He's inviting private operators to respond to the tender when it's put up.

Joining the debate on the White Paper on Population, Mr Lui said more City Direct-type bus services will be contracted out.

These services run during the morning peak hours along the expressways.

LTA will work with the operators to see if it's possible to extend such a contracting arrangement to other new, shorter services, for instance, localised routes that feed to MRT stations.

This will allow LTA to scale up the BSEP beyond the 550 buses that the two public bus operators are committed to implement and give it the resources to implement more new routes and other service improvements.