ICT super highway empowers Colombo-Katunayake Expressway
Saturday, 26 October 2013 07:21
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Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) said yesterday it has been chosen to provide consultancy services as well as oversee and inspect the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway (CKE) project’s communication infrastructure and issue an independent certification for fibre optic installation to assure its capacity to handle many terabytes per second along the 25.8 km long Expressway.
This has been awarded to SLT after the company successfully completed the laying of 117 km of optical fibre cable along the Southern Expressway to facilitate the information superhighway of the country.
This new Colombo-Katunayake Highway, which starts from the New Kelani Bridge, leads to the access road of the Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake, and the travel time from Colombo to Katunayake is expected to be reduced to 20 minutes.
SLT will be facilitating the Road Development Authority (RDA) in their overall operation of CKE through the provision of a high capacity and reliable, fault free optical fibre based telecommunications network operating along the CKE, capable of handling 1Gbps to 10Gbps speeds when required.
The company also supports the project with further solutions by including the 1969 emergency call number for Sri Lanka’s expressways, high bandwidth Ethernet data connectivity between the Katunayake Control Centre and the Southern Expressway (Galanigama), Ethernet data connectivity between electronic toll gate and bank for payment gateway and SLT Megaline and broadband services.
Sri Lanka Telecom Group CEO Lalith De Silva expressing his views on this mega development project said: “The efforts of SLT in enabling a connected society have contributed to the expansion of high speed data access through multiple broadband technologies over the past few years. Furthermore, the optical fibre that has been laid along the Southern Expressway and Colombo-Katunayake Expressway to facilitate the information superhighway of the country will contribute significantly towards the economic growth of the country. SLT is proud to be an important part of Sri Lanka’s economic development by providing the most reliable and state-of-the-art communication infrastructure for the entire nation.”
Sri Lanka’s ongoing mega infrastructure development drive saw Sri Lanka having her second expressway with more highways earmarked for the future. This will give a boost to ports, the aviation industry and the hospitality sector by infusing large investments into these strategic areas that are of significant importance to development.
SLT Chief Enterprise and Wholesale Officer Kiththi Perera said: “The fibre optic network can be integrated with the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) surveillance system to improve road safety and emergency services. Further this network will be essential to develop the tolling systems and traffic management systems operations. SLT is keen to leverage on these fibre optic cable systems in expressways and work together with the RDA to add value to expressway users. Also SLT is planning to undertake signing a contract for the maintenance of the fibre optic communications cables along the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway.”
SLT believes vast economic benefits can be realised through reliable telecommunication infrastructure capable of adequately catering to the immediate and long term information technology needs of a developing nation.
