Minister of Transport, Highways and Mass Media Dr….

Minister of Transport, Highways and Mass Media Dr. Bandula Gunawardena said that the renovation of the section of the Northern railway track from Mahawa to Anuradhapura, which will be modernised at a cost of Rs. 3 billion, will begin on January 7, 2024.

The Minister told a press conference at the Government Information Department on Friday (December 29), that the train from Colombo to Anuradhapura will have to be stopped to enable the repairs and the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) has agreed to deploy 20 SLTB buses for five months for the convenience of passengers travelling from Colombo to Mahawa and beyond to Anuradhapura or Jaffna.

He said that the railway commuters will have to endure the inconvenience only for about five months. A special bus service will run from Colombo to Jaffna via Anuradhapura and from Mahawa to Anuradhapura and Jaffna, he said.

Dr. Gunawardena said, “The section of the Northern railway track from Mahawa to Omanthai, which has served for a long time in the history of our country, has not been renovated for a long time. Therefore, a loan was approved under the Indian Credit Line (ICL) to modernise Sri Lanka’s railway system in 2014 and the total loan amount approved for the modernsation of the Northern railway is about Rs.3 billion. Although the agreement related to this loan scheme was started in 2014, tenders were called for 128 kilometres from Mahawa to Omanthai only in 2019. According to the competitive bids presented, the contract has been awarded to Ircon, a company owned 100 percent by the Government of India. However, no work was carried out during the pandemic years.

“After I became the Minister in charge, I discussed with India to do this project as soon as possible,” he said.

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