Road facelift gets over Rs 189,000m

Stanley Seneviratne Kurunegala North group corr

Rs 19,000 million was allocated to develop roads in 2005. This has been increased to Rs 75,126 million in 2009. This is a four fold increase over 2005. The total expenditure was Rs 189,499 million for the development of roads from 2005 to 2010, Industries and Commerce Deputy Minister Jayaratne Herath said. The Deputy Minister was addressing a Jana-Hamuwa at Mapegamuwa-Kurunegala after opening the Dudley Senanayake Mawatha Mapegamuwa last week.

Kurunegala District MP, Neranjan Wickramsinghe said the government ended the war and has started massive development projects.

He said the government's aim is to provide accessibility to all and to have a high and quality mobility road network for the transportation of passengers and goods.

Kurunegala Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman P Karunasinghe said over 72 percent of the population of the country live in rural areas and they need better roads to improve their economic and social conditions. The latter includes access to health and education facilities. Most agriculture activities and 20,000 small and medium scale enterprises spread over the country will benefit from development of rural roads which are usually in a very neglected state, he said.

Karunasinghe said that 1,107 km of provincial roads have been rehabilitated at a cost of Rs 15,267 million in the Western, North Western, North Central, Uva, Central and Sabaragamuwa Provinces.