US $ 105 m for road development
WB, ADB, JICA joint program:
North, East and Uva provinces to benefit:
Charumini de Silva
A US$ 105 million road development project has been designed to
rehabilitate 350 kms of C and D class roads in Northern, Eastern and Uva
provinces. The
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From left: World Bank Senior Infrastructure Specialist, Amali
Rajapaksa, World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka, Naoko
Ishii and World Bank Senior Communication Officer, Chulie de
Silva at the press briefing yesterday. Picture by Saliya
Rupasinghe |
project has been prepared as a joint program for the road sector
between the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Japan International
Corporation Agency (JICA) and the World Bank, World Bank Senior
Infrastructure Specialist, Amali Rajapaksa told a press briefing
yesterday.
The main objective of this project is to increase the share of roads
in fine condition in Northern, Eastern and Uva provinces enabling easier
and faster access to markets and other socio-economic centres.
Development of provincial roads project is expected to be completed
by 2015 and the US$ 105 million credit from the International
Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary lending
arm will completely finance the project.
She said that the development of provincial roads is to support the
routine and periodic maintenance activities through a comprehensive road
maintenance program and assist in improving the performance of the
provincial road departments.
The work will include rehabilitation and widening of existing roads
inclusive of bridges with construction of lined drains and retaining
walls.
The project has allocated a total of US$ 90 million for the
refurbishment of provincial roads and of that US$ 50 million for the
reconstruction of 150 km of roads in the Uva Province, US$ 20 million
each to reconstruct 100 km roads in the Ampara district and 100 km roads
in the Jaffna district, Rajapaksa said.
The project has allocated US$ 10 million for road maintenance
development. This will financially assist the maintenance activities and
setting up safety signs on recently refurbished roads. She said US$ 5
million has been allocated to improve the performance of the provincial
road departments, which will strengthen the areas of contract
management, procurement, social and environmental safeguards and
capacity development of the construction industry. |
