2014 will be a Year of Expressways

Tuesday, 31 December 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

News.lk: The year 2014 will be a year of declare opening and launching Expressways in Sri Lanka. This is a major transformation introduced under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the road network of this country which happened to be full of potholes, impassable, and becoming pools of water on rainy days and during rainy seasons. In the past, people used to say that they can go fishing on our roads on rainy days, and in many places they used to keep branches of trees implanted in the pot holes to warn passersby. Many Sri Lankans visiting foreign countries and seeing the expressways in those countries and others seeing pictures of expressways in magazines and films would have been amazed about the progress of road development in other countries and may have wondered when such an era would dawn in Sri Lanka to replace the pot-hole-ridden roads in our country. This scenario completely changed with Mahinda Rajapaksa becoming the President of this country. The President took immediate steps to implement a major transformation to our road net work by launching expeditious construction programs to build highways, flyovers and expressways in the country by the Ministry of Highways headed by him, as he rightly visualised that these development activities are vital for Sri Lanka’s march to becoming a wonder nation of Asia.

Sri Lanka’s Expressway era started with the declare opening of the 128 kilometre Southern Expressway from Kottawa to Pinnaduwa in Galle by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 27 November, 2011. This expressway was rightly named as the “Gateway to Wonder Nation”. This was followed by the declare opening of the 2nd Expressway from Colombo to Katunayake reducing the travel time between Colombo to Katunayake International Airport to 20 minutes. Construction of this 28 kilometre expressway was started in October 2009 and the expressway was declared open by the President on 27 October 2013, just before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in Colombo in the month of November. The cost of the project amounted to $ 292 million. This expressway helped project tall the image of Sri Lanka in the eyes of the heads of states and other dignitaries who participated in the 2013 Commonwealth events in the country. The third expressway of the country, the 30 kilometre expressway from Galle to Matara will be declared open on 31 January. $ 180 million have been spent for the construction of this expressway. Meanwhile, Phase One of the Kottawa to Kerawelapitiya Outer Circular Expressway, covering 11 kilometres from Kottawa to Kaduwela will be declared open in February. Construction of the entire Kottawa to Kerawelapitiya expressway covering around 30 kilometres is being implemented under three phases. Along with declare opening of the Galle-Matara expressway on 31 January, the construction work of the Matara-Hambantota expressway will also be started. It is planned to construct this 94 kilometre expressway in four years time.In addition to this steps have also been taken to start construction work of Colombo-Jaffna, and Colombo-Kandy expressways next year. The Colombo-Kandy expressway will be constructed via Kurunegala and it will be extended to Trincomalee as well. Plans have also been made to construct expressways diverting the Matara-Hambantota expressway to Ampara and Batticaloa. Despite baseless and envious criticisms being made by despicable and vile opposition political elements on cost factors and taking of loans, the people of Sri Lanka will ever be grateful to President Mahinda Rajapaksa for bringing Sri Lanka on par with other developed nations as far as its roads are concerned.