Manmunai bridge construction:

Japan grants Rs 1,736 m

At present, ferries are used for transportation between the Western and Eastern shores of the Batticaloa lagoon. It has limited capacity of transportation for a journey.

Ambassador of Japan in Sri Lanka Kunio Takahashi and Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Planning P B Jayasundera exchanging the agreement.

It is expected to construct a new bridge at Manmunai across the Batticaloa Lagoon, 210 meters in length and 9.8 meters in width and a causeway to reduce the existing travel time from 30 minutes to one minute and to reduce interrupted period of traffic after floods up to one to two days from 2 weeks.

The government of Japan has agreed to provide a grant of Japanese Yen 1,206 million (Approximately Rs. 1,736 million) for this construction.

The construction of the new bridge will reduce the distance between the lagoon and shore from 32 km to 300 meters and Manmunai Western shore to Batticaloa town from 27 km to 15 km and improve the access to emergency medical services and educational services for residents.

Accordingly, it is expected to improve the transportation capacity across the lagoon and it will provide direct transportation facilities to 90,000 and indirectly benefit 10,000.

The Exchange of Notes pertaining to the above grant took place at the Ministry of Finance and Planning yesterday.

Ambassador of Japan in Sri Lanka Kunio Takahashi signed the Exchange of Notes on behalf of the government of Japan while Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Planning P B Jayasundera singed on behalf of the government of Sri Lanka.

A grant agreement was also signed between government of Sri Lanka and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), P B Jayasundera, Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Planning and Akira Shimura, Senior JICA Sri Lanka Office Representative signed on behalf of the government of Sri Lanka and JICA respectively.