The ETC lane and the chaos at Colombo-Katunayake Expressway

The entry and exit points of the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway has become very chaotic during rush hours in the past few weeks, since the authorities are trying to introduce an Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system to recover the fees for using the expressway.

Towards the above objective, the authorities have recently restricted/reserved one lane at entrance/exit points to ETC customers only, and this has resulted in a massive build-up of queues of vehicles both at entry and exit points during rush hours creating a lot of inconvenience to the commuters.

It appears that the main purpose of using an expressway is totally lost under the above circumstances since paying a fee to travel at ease within a shorter time period has been jeopardised with long delays, with queues sometimes taking 15 to 30 minutes of travelling time. 

Due to these delays people travelling for emergencies such as taking patients to hospitals, travelling to Katunayake Air Port and, travelling for urgent official work, etc. are left with dire consequences.

Although introducing electronic payment systems could be convenient and a step towards future technological advancements, it appears that the way it has been implemented only has created all the confusion.

Firstly the users were not properly educated in advance about this ETC payment mode and adequate facilities were not provided for the people to take this ‘ETC’ facility at their convenience. Secondly using ETC facility should not be forcefully imposed on the road users  by restricting/delaying their travelling time and those who want to pay by cash at exit points (due to various reasons) should be allowed to do so without creating any inconvenience to them.

Thirdly, during rush hours, if there are less/nor ETC users, normal road users should be allowed to go through the ETC lane so that the traffic congestion would be minimised.

Accordingly I appeal to the relevant authorities to introduce proper mechanisms so that both the users and non-users of the ETC service could travel on the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway with convenience in the same manner as it was done previously without creating unwanted issues and frustrations to the users for the sake of introducing an Electronic Toll Collection system.

Indrajith Senadhira

Ja-ela