Medawachchiya to Madhu rail line 50 pc complete

Irangika RANGE

Fifty percent of the construction work of the railway line from Medawachchiya to Madhu has been completed.

The construction work on Medawachchiya-Madhu segment is expected to be completed on schedule by the middle of 2013, a Transport Ministry spokesman said.

He said attention has been paid to complete its construction expeditiously. Sri Lanka signed a commercial agreement with India last year for Indian assistance to reconstruct the Northern Railway Line from Medawachchiya to Thalaimannar, destroyed by the LTTE terrorists.

The reconstruction work is being carried out in two phases. In the first phase, the 43 kilometer track from Medawachchiya to Madhu is being reconstructed at a cost of US $ 81.3 million. Madhu to Thalaimannar segment will be built at a cost of US $ 149.74 million.

He said the reconstruction of the Medawachchiya-Thalaimannar railway line is a symbol of friendship between India and Sri Lanka. The construction work is being carried out by the Indian Railway Construction Company Limited (IRCON).This project has been funded as a part of the Line of Credit of US $800 million, which has been extended by the Indian government at concessional terms, he said.

He said that the completion of the project, coupled with the restoration of the ferry service between Rameswaram (India) and Talaimannar, would greatly promote connectivity, bilateral trade and people-to-people exchanges between India and Sri Lanka.

With the end of the war, reconstruction work on physical resources destroyed in Northern and Eastern areas is now progressing rapidly, he added.