ADB lends further $ 150 m to boost rural road connectivity

Thursday, 14 November 2019 00:08 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

From left: ADB Sri Lanka Resident Mission Officer-in-Charge Manjula Amerasinghe, Secretary to the Treasury and Ministry of Finance

Dr. R.H.S. Samaratunga, and Road Development Authority

Chairman Nihal Sooriyarachchi

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government yesterday signed a $150 million Tranche 2 Loan Agreement for the Second Integrated Road Investment Program to continue ADB’s assistance to upgrade Sri Lanka’s rural road network, thereby connecting vast rural populations to jobs and services. Secretary to the Treasury and Ministry of Finance Dr. R.H.S. Samaratunga signed the Loan Agreement for the Government of Sri Lanka and ADB Sri Lanka Resident Mission Officer-in-Charge Manjula Amerasinghe signed on behalf of ADB.

A Project Agreement was also signed between ADB and Nihal Sooriyarachchi, Chairman, Road Development Authority, the project’s implementing agency.

Under the Second Integrated Road Investment Program, which was approved by ADB’s Board of Directors on 29 September 2017, about 3,400 km of rural access roads and 340 km of national roads in the Eastern, Northern, and Uva provinces as well as part of the Western province will be rehabilitated/improved. The program will also improve the capacity of the country’s road agencies for road safety, maintenance, research, design, and construction.

The program, which is due for completion in 2027, will deliver finance in five tranches to 2021. This is the second of such tranches. The Government will meet $ 21.80 million of the second tranche program cost.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. In 2018, it made commitments of new loans and grants amounting to $21.6 billion. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

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