Traffic issues of the Capital City (Sri Jayewardenepura)

The main reason for the traffic issues with Sri Jayewardenepura (Capital City) towards Colombo is the fact that although designated as the Capital of the country, for transport purposes the Capital City still is a suburb of Colombo. The bus routes that were there in the 1980s are yet to be redesigned based on the changes in the demand. The other reason is the failure to connect the Capital City to the railway network. There are multitudes of other reasons that have to be looked at as a whole. 

Recent reports say that the Government is planning to construct a new 10 km railway line to and within Sri Jayewardenepura, expecting to resolve the transport issue of the Capital City. While I agree that enhancing the capacity of common transport modes is part of the solution, I believe that this issue needs broader strategising. Rather than analysing the issue in detail, I will list the solutions which come to mind, hoping that the decision-makers take a more holistic view on the issue.

Railway link from Nawinna Railway Station to Capital City

The city should have a link to the Maradana Railway hub as envisaged. However, an all-new railway line would cost an enormous amount of funds, and would also take a long time to complete. If one looks at an aerial photograph of the location in question, one would notice that the best way to do this is to link the Nawinna Railway Station to the Capital City. This would be cheaper than building a new railway line from Maradana. 

There is approximately a 4 km corridor of marshy land between the Nawinna Railway Station and the area where Rakna Lanka Food Court is located (in the vicinity of Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital). Frequent direct trains from the Capital City to Bambalapitiya, Negombo, Ragama, etc. for office workers would reduce the other vehicle usage considerably. Further long distance trains to Kandy, Matara, and Jaffna, etc. would link the capital city with the main cities as it should be with any capital city.

The railway station in the Capital City Transport Hub should also double up as a bus station connecting Colombo, the suburbs of Sri Jayewardenepura and also the main employment centres such as Sethsiri Paya, Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital, the Parliament, Defence Headquarters, etc. 

Using the spare land in the current Kelani Valley line, owned by the Department of Railways, a second track should be built between the Nawinna Railway station and Maradana, so that express trains could ply between the Capital City and Maradana without being a hindrance to the slower trains. Overhead bridges at the main railway intersections, such as Nawinna, Nugegoda, Narahenpita, Rajagiriya Road, etc., would ensure that additional trains would not hamper the movement of other vehicles. 

Express bus services connecting main cities to Capital City

Colombo and Pettah are the transport hubs in Colombo. Therefore, buses travel from the suburbs directly to Colombo. If one observes, they may find that a large number of buses are traveling with limited capacity utilisation. The Capital City needs its own hub with direct links to Pettah and other popular towns. Additionally, there should be a few buses running nonstop between the destinations. 

When all buses stop at all bus halts, it contributes to traffic congestions. If the Capital City has a hub (also with the railway connection as aforementioned), it will make people from the suburbs come to its own hub via link bus services and use (non-stop) trunk services to other centres such as Colombo, Fort, Kollupitiya, Kotahena, etc. 

Further, there could be many people who are going to Pettah to get connecting bus/train services to other major cities. Therefore, the Capital city hub should have direct luxury bus services at regular intervals to other main cities such as Kandy, Kurunegala, Negombo, Anuradhapura, Jaffna, Badulla, Galle, Matara etc. These buses would be journeying in the opposite direction of city bound traffic of the new Kandy Road, High-Level Road and expressways to get out of the Capital City. Hence, they would not be a hindrance during the rush hours.

Capital City transport/multi services hub

The Capital City Transport Hub should be a multi-use facility that would accommodate travel for all purposes. There could be many people traveling to the city to obtain services from the Government departments such as the Passport Office, the Registrar of Persons, the Registrar of Motor Vehicles, etc. 

The Capital City Transport Hub should also have ‘Capital City’ branches of these government offices, where services for handing over and collecting of applications are available for passports, National Identity Cards, drivers’ licenses and vehicle registration. The Capital City Transport Hub building should also have a financial sector floor which will have a super grade branch of all State and private banks, all State and private insurance companies, all State and private leasing companies, etc.

Another floor of the Capital City Transport Hub Building could also have an entertainment floor with three to four cinemas, games areas and other entertainment activities. Yet another floor could have branches of Colombo’s famous local and international restaurants. Substantial space should be allocated for vehicle and motor cycle parking for people who will park their vehicles and use the train (see below) and bus services from the Capital City Transport Hub. 

Changes to intersections

With regard to the main road connecting Battaramulla and Colombo, the Rajagiriya intersection is the most ill-planned intersection in Colombo. The simplest solution is to use the land occupied by the Welikada Police to connect Nawala Road with the Ayurveda Hospital Road. This will make the intersection at the Kotte Municipal Council a four-way one. 

The vehicles coming from Kotte that intend to get to the Ayurveda Hospital Road, would have to turn left on to the Nawala Road and then use the proposed direct connection of Nawala Road to the Ayurveda Hospital Road. With this, the vehicles coming from Kotte and going towards Borella will have to stop at one intersection at Rajagiriya rather than two. The other bottleneck is at the McDonald’s intersection. 

As vehicle users who want to use Cotta Road could get to the Ayurveda Road at Rajagiriya proposed intersection, there is no need to allow vehicles coming from Kotte to use the McDonald’s intersection to get to Cotta Road. Similarly, if any vehicle needs to go towards Senanayake junction, then it should use the Rajagiriya intersection to get to Raja Mawatha rather than using the McDonald’s intersection. This will clear the bottle neck at the McDonald’s intersection completely.

New schools, etc., in the Capital City

The early morning and noon traffic is mostly due to tens of thousands of school children using school vans and private transport to get to schools in Colombo. Sri Jayewardenepura requires the establishment of two to three large schools with the same level of Royal, Ananda College, Visaka Vidyalaya and Devi Balika Vidyalaya with top of the line academic and sports facilities. These schools should together have the capacity of accommodating at least 10,000 students of all grades. 

Ideally, these schools should be taught in the English medium, enabling people of all ethnic groups to study together. Considering the ‘reputation’ attached to the Sri Lankan school system and the perception of the people regarding the said reputation, the proposed schools should be established as Capital City Campuses of Royal College Colombo, Visakha Vidyalaya, etc. 

The establishment of a fee levying campus of Sri Jayewardenepura University (later to be made an Independent Capital City University) could accommodate students pursuing CIMA, Chartered Accountancy, marketing, personnel management, etc. This too, will reduce a substantial number of people traveling to Kollupitiya and Bambalapitiya to various higher education establishments. As an alternative, the City Council could build a complex, housing lecture rooms and invite private institutions, training students in those areas to conduct their lectures therein. 

Road user charges

The main Capital City-Colombo road should be made a toll levying road with digital toll collection. This will make it easier to regulate traffic as a higher toll during the peak hours could be implemented to make people who do not have to travel in the peak hours, use non-peak hours. 

As approximately 200,000 vehicles use this road daily, a levy of Rs. 25 one way would collect approximately Rs. 2.5 billion rupees as tolls annually. This should apply to other main roads such as High Level Road and Galle Road as well. Common transport vehicles such as buses, three wheelers and the common man’s motorcycles should be exempted from tolls. 

Therefore a combined strategy including new modes of transport (railways) increasing efficiency of the current system (nonstop bus services), reducing the need to travel to Colombo (opening service points of Government services, school and higher education establishments), would be the way to find a lasting solution to the traffic congestions in the Capital City.