Even though Sri Lanka receives five billion rupees per year after making payments for construction and maintenance purposes at Expressways, still it will take more than 160 years to pay off the loans and interest taken to construct the existing roads.
The Transport, Highways and Mass Media Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardhana said as this burden cannot be placed on the tax-paying public, the Cabinet has decided to handover the management of the expressway system and its assets to the 100 percent government-owned Sahasya Investment Company.
Minister Dr. Gunawardhana expressed these views at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to implement the above. The MoU was signed between the Road Development Authority and the Treasury.
Senior Engineer K.K. Kandamby with more than 28 years of experience in RDA has been appointed as the Chief Operating Officer at Sahasya Investment established to manage the operations of the expressway network under the Ministry of Transport and Highways. The letter related to that appointment was handed over to Kanamby by the Minister.
P.R.B. Sumangalee who is a highly experienced officer at the Ministry of Transport has been appointed as the Chief Financial Officer.
The expressway system owned by the Road Development Authority and its assets will be placed under Sahasya Investment Company in the future.
Minister Dr. Gunawardhana expressing his views said; “hitherto the construction, maintenance and development of the expressways and public road system was carried out by the RDA. But having these two systems under one institution is not feasible. Class A and B roads are considered public property built and maintained with public tax money. It is not easy to distinguish who is using those roads and who is not. Because of that, we cannot charge a price.
But expressways are different. We can identify the people who use it and charge a fee. This should be separated as a commercial activity. Otherwise, these roads built by taking large loans will have to be paid for by the tax payers.
To maintain the expressway system as a commercial business, it will be controlled by a board of directors with 100 percent government ownership, who can make quick decisions, have better financial discipline, management, and expertise. The secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Highways acts as its chairman.
The Chief Operating Officer is a Deputy General Manager of the RDA and an officer of the Ministry of Transport is in charge of financial operations. The other members of the Board of Directors are a group of officials from the Public Business Department of the Treasury.
The annual profit of Expressways is five billion rupees and the outstanding debt of loans taken to construct these roads is 800 billion rupees. It will take 160 years to pay off the expressway debt. Even if a person born on this day lives for eighty years, he or she will have to pay this debt for another lifetime to complete it.
Therefore, as the Minister in charge of the subject, from the time I took over one and a half years ago, many proposals were presented to make the expressway system efficient and effective.
Although we put forward proposals such as creating an e-ticket system, an automatic gate system, service centres with private sector investments, installing solar power plants on both sides of roads, giving land on lease for productive initiatives, so far none of these proposals have been implemented.
Proposals are presented, Cabinet papers are presented, observations are made, committees and sub-committees are formed and time is spent, but the required role is not being fulfilled. Therefore, we believe that Sahasya Investment Company will become a State-owned enterprise that will add new value to the country by working under the most modern techniques and infrastructure strategies”.
Ranjith Rubasinghe, Secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Highways, Director General of Public Affairs of the Treasury Susantha Athula Kumara, RDA Chairman Chaminda Athuluage, Director General Priyantha Sooriyabandara, Additional Secretaries of the Ministry, heads of operational institutions under the Ministry and others participated in this event.
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