First segment of outer circular highway opening on 8 March
Saturday, 1 March 2014 06:40
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The first segment of the Outer Circular Highway (OCH) around Colombo from Kottawa to Kaduwela will be declared open on 8 March.
The public will be able to travel on the expressway from Kaduwela to Galle bypassing the congested city traffic in Colombo once the OCH segment opened as the OCH is connected to the Southern Expressway at Kottawa.
The 11-km long Kottawa-Kaduwela segment of the OCH is located in the Colombo Metropolitan Region and passes through Colombo and Gampaha Districts.
The OCH runs around 20 km away from the city centre of Colombo, connecting radial routes and has a total length of 29.2 km.
The northern end of the highway is located at Kerawalapitiya on Colombo-Katunayake Expressway and the southern end is located at Kottawa on Colombo-Ratnapura-Wellawaya-Batticaloa road where Southern Expressway meets OCH.
It is being developed as a four-lane highway with provision for future expansion to six lanes. The design speed of the highway is 100 kmph.
The Kottawa-Kaduwela segment in Phase 1 of the project was constructed with the financial assistance from Japan at a cost of Rs. 27 billion.
The second stage, the 8.9 km segment from Kaduwela to Kadawatha will be vested in the ownership of the general public next year.
The final phase of the project will complete the 9.3 km section from Kadawatha to Kerawalapitiya connecting the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway to the Southern Expressway via the OCH. Thereafter it would become one expressway from Katunayake to Matara passing the Gampaha, Colombo, Kalutara and Galle Districts.
