'Southern expressway will reduce travelling time, traffic conjestion'

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

COLOMBO: The Southern Transport Development Project will reduce travelling time between Colombo and Matara by one and half hours when the project is completed.

It will give a number of direct benefits to the people such as reduction of traffic congestion and accidents. Juha Kosonen of Finnroad Ltd said at a seminar organised by the Chamber of Construction on Expressways recently.

The development of tourism, fisheries, agriculture and other industries also will take place creating a large number of employment to people with the completion of this project, he said.

The 126 km expressway will include four lanes initially from Kottawa to Dodangoda and two lanes from Dodangoda to Godagama and it would be widened to six lanes in the final stage.

The posted speed on expressway will be 80 km at the beginning and it will be increased to 100 km per hour.There will be eleven interchange locations between the two destinations.

The estimated cost for the project is Rs. 31.5 billion.

The Government of Sri Lanka provides Rs 6.6 billion for construction and Rs 2.5 billion for acquisition and Resettlement and Asian Development Bank, SIDA, Nordic Development Fund, Japan Bank for International Corporation provides the balance. Completion of Civil works is due in March 2010, Kosonen said.

Kosonen is a consultant to the Southern Transport Development project.