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Thursday Nov 21, 2024
Saturday, 31 October 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Government has signed two new loan agreements with Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) to obtain part financing for the $140 million rehabilitation of the A5 Road corridor from Badulla to Chenkaladi.
The A5 corridor is one of the major highways linking parts of the Central Province to Eastern Province geopolitical zones of the country which carries the bulk of the traffic between Batticaloa and Peradeniya via Badulla and to finance procurement of medical equipment for the ongoing Epilepsy Hospital Project.
Improvements to A5 road corridor from Badulla to Chenkaladi would enhance access to markets and social infrastructure such as schools and hospitals and integrate isolated segments of the rural population into the overall economy, the Finance Ministry said in a short statement on Friday.
The reduction in the travel time due to the reduction of traffic congestion, reduction in vehicle operation costs would ultimately reduce the travel cost benefiting both passengers and industries.
“This project is jointly financed by SFD and OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) where the total estimated cost of the project is $ 140 million.The Financing Agreement with SFD is to obtain $ 60 million for the project.The Financing Agreement with OFID has signed on 26June 2015 to obtain another$ 60 million and Government of Sri Lanka would provide the balance financing.”
With the signing of Financing Agreement with SFD, OFID loan becomes active and the project work could be commenced.Only an interest rate of 2% per annum would be applicable for this loan which has to repay in 25 years period including a five-year grace period.
The financing for Epilepsy Hospital comes as an additional financing for procurement of equipment for the ongoing Epilepsy Hospital Project where SFD has provided $ 20 million to construct fully equipped state of art hospital for epilepsy patients. The 10-storey hospital building consists of an operation theater, Intensive Care Unit (ICU), High Dependency Unit (HDU), 242 bedded male and female wards, an auditorium for capacity building for island wide medical staff.
The additional financing of $ 12 million is mainly to procure all necessary equipment including device ray CT, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, physical therapy devices, medical furniture, etc. Only an interest rate 2% per annum would be applicable for this loan and repayment period is 20 years including a five-year grace period.
Both Loan Agreementswere inked in Colombo by Dr. R.H.S. Samaratunge, Secretary to the Treasury and Secretary to the Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka and Eng Youssef AL-Bassam, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of SFD on behalf of the Saudi Fund for Development.
