Sacred Madhu Church annual feast:

Special transport for pilgrims

Irangika RANGE

The Transport Ministry has introduced special bus and train services for pilgrims to the Sacred Madhu Church for the annual feast.

Addressing a press-briefing in Colombo, Transport Minister Kumara Welgama said Sri Lanka Railways will deploy three extra trains in addition to daily trains from Colombo Fort to Medawachchiya and back, from August 6 to August 15. There will also be a direct train from Matara to Medawachchiya and back daily.

The minister said a combined railway-bus service will also commence from the Medawachchiya railway station to transport pilgrims coming by train to Madhu Church. Around 50 buses will be deployed to transport pilgrims from the Medawachchiya railway station to the Madhu Church.

“We will establish several counters to issue bus and train tickets to pilgrims in the Madhu Church premises,” he said.

Special bus services will also operate to transport devotees coming from the Mannar-Thalaimannar road to the Madhu church.

Under this special system, a bus service will commence from Moratuwa, Wennappuwa, Chilaw, Negombo and Puttalam to the Madhu Church.

Meanwhile, depots in Vavuniya, Jaffna and Mannar have deployed special buses to transport devotees living in Mannar, Vavuniya and Jaffna for the Madhu feast.

The SLTB together with the Railway Department have introduced special packages for devotees.

Estate Resources and Enterprises Development Deputy Minister Sarath Kumara Gunaratne said all arrangements are being made to hold the ‘Annual Madhu Feast’ on a grand scale. Catholics are ready to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Madhu without any fear after over 30 years and all facilities will be provided to them during the church feast.

“Nearly one million devotees were present during last year’s Madhu feast and we will be making arrangements to make sure a large numbers of devotees attend the annual feast this year too,” he said.