Govt. to rehabilitate 15,000 km of roads in N&E

Saturday, 20 August 2016 00:49 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Government plans to rehabilitate 15,000 kilometres of roads in the North and East in an effort to promote economic development in the region, Highways and Higher Education Minister Lakshman Kiriella said recently.

“As much as 15000km of road will be carpeted in the North and East provinces. With the rule of the President and Prime Minister, we will renew the old friendship between the South and the North.”

“I thank the people of the North for voting for a change on 8 January. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian M. Sumanthiran always speaks about the development for his area in Parliament. During the Presidential Election we promised the people that we would develop the North and East. We have not forgotten that promise.”

The Minister made these statements while attending the opening ceremony of the rehabilitation work on the Point Pedro – Maruthankerny Road (B 371) on Wednesday, his ministry said in a statement.

“When I became the Minister of Highways, we approached the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to assist us in developing all the roads in the country, particularly in the North and East. The ADB have already started selecting roads from the North and East for special development from January next year. 15,000km of road will be carpeted in the North and East provinces of which 700km will be for the Jaffna District.”

The infrastructure development measures would be backed by greater effort to encourage investment in the area to increase job opportunities, the Minister added. He also said the Government was focused on putting together a strong Constitution that would provide equitable rights to all communities.

“The Prime Minister Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe is the Chairman of the committee which drafts the new constitution and as the Leader of the House; I will assist to make this endeavour a success. I’m confident that we will find an acceptable solution to all communities living in Sri Lanka. During the past the friendship between the North and South was lost with the arrival of colonial rulers. We will renew the old friendship with the rule of the President and Prime Minister between the South and the North with this good governance.”