IESL requests Govt. use available concessionary financing for railway electrification and modernisat

Wednesday, 4 May 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) in a statement yesterday welcomed the decision of the Government to implement the much-awaited electrification and modernisation of the suburban railway network.

IESL has been in the forefront of conducting analyses and sensitising the governments over the past five decades about the immense economic benefits of railway electrification: energy saving, lower emissions, saving in travel time, and comfort.

IESL is calling upon the Government to diligently follow its decision all the way through towards its systematic implementation in the suburbs of Colombo, and subsequently in the suburbs of key provincial cities. All road users suffer from severe congestion. The aim of railway electrification and modernisation would be to encourage the 400,000 passengers who presently travel by rail everyday to continue with train travel, and to attract road users to move into this modern, efficient form of transport. The project expects that over one million travellers will use the electrified service daily.

The Institution of Engineers is aware that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pledged to finance the entire project. Concessionary financing available from multilateral lending agencies such as ADB are the cheapest forms of financing for infrastructure. As infrastructure projects have long construction periods and unclear revenue streams, private investors are not keen on such projects. Sri Lanka has wasted precious time searching for investors for the airport expressway, and lately for the Kandy expressway. Such illusive investors would never be found, owing to the fact that such projects are not financially viable. However, railway electrification has a very high ranking in its economic viability. This means, the invisible or hidden economic benefits are far greater than the visible financial benefits. “IESL calls upon the Government not to be misled into believing that railway investments would be done by the private sector, and to implement the electrification project without any further delay, using the concessionary financing already available from the ADB,” the statement said.