Transport, Highways and Media Ministry yesterday said that India agreed to provide technical training for 65 employees instead of 45 employees as per the agreement for the purchase of 160 carriages from M/s RITES and the Ministry insisted that there is no additional payment for that and this technical training is included in the payment for the carriages as per the agreement.
The Ministry in a press release in response to a news item published in a Sinhala daily on Tuesday, November 07, 2023, under the headline that 65 railway workers ready to go to India to check train carriages-cost is $70,000, yesterday said that this technical transfer is a mandatory requirement of the agreement and no additional payment has been made for it.
Excerpts from the release…
Department was awarded to M/s RITES, on 07-09-2018, following an agreement where this was arrived at. According to the agreement SRS/F7340, the Railway Department had purchased 160 new railway carriages under the Indian loan scheme. In relation to that agreement, 45 railway employees have to be trained for the maintenance and pre-run inspection of these train carriages.
During the covid epidemic, these railway carriages were imported to Sri Lanka and due to the dangerous situation on top of travel restrictions; it was not possible to send engineers to India to inspect these carriages. Based on this situation and due to certain technical problems, that arose; adding these carriages for operation got delayed. Even though these technical errors were corrected later, due to the objections of the regulatory association, even the release of these train carriages from the port continued to be delayed.
After the current Minister of Transport and Highways, Dr. Bandula Gunawardhana, took office, necessary steps were taken to put the new train carriages into operation by providing solutions to the existing problems. However, since the technical exchanges related to these carriages had not yet taken place, the training of the Sri Lankan railway engineering department was not sufficient to solve certain technical problems related to the carriages being added for running.
In response to the Railway Department’s request to provide relevant technical training as per the agreement for the purchase of railway carriages, India agreed to provide relevant technical training for 65 employees instead of 45 employees. There is no additional payment for that and this technical training is included in the payment for the carriages as per the agreement. This technical transfer is a mandatory requirement of the agreement and no additional payment has been made for it.
M/s RITES limited, which facilitates the training, will bear all the expenses including the air tickets, accommodation, food and drink for this training. The Government of Sri Lanka will bear only a subsistence allowance of US$ 40 per day for an officer who participates and for this complete training, and the Government of Sri Lanka has to bear an amount of US$ 36,400 only.
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