CowA major problem of the country is the change in policies when the party changes. Sagala Ratnayake, Senior Adviser to the President on National Security and Head of the President’s Task Force said that the government is currently carrying out legal reforms in various financial and administrative functions in order to solve the problem.
He said that these efforts were made to stabilize the country’s economy and while the Central Bank Act, Public Finance Act and Debt Management Act have been passed, the Economic Transfer Bill has been submitted to the Parliament. He said the above while attending a technical conference on high-speed highways held yesterday (24) at Colombo Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel.
He pointed out that the construction of high-speed road for port access is nearing completion, which will be a huge boost to the country’s economy.
Sagala Ratnayaka who further commented here said:
“This program is very important. Many challenges had to be faced before starting this. The headquarters of the port also had to be modified in view of this project.
The reason for this is that there is not enough space available for this project. However, we have completed the port works without any disruption. In 2019, the works for this were started.
2020 Even though these works were going on amid the spread of Covid, they had to be put on hold due to the economic downturn. Despite the delay, the project has now been completed. This will boost the economy tremendously.
Accordingly, the high-speed road infrastructure that was planned 3 decades ago is now available. The expressway is designed to facilitate the smooth running of Colombo city operations and reduce traffic congestion between Colombo Port and Katunayake Airport and will serve as a focal point for the country’s expressway infrastructure.
Due to vehicular crunch, delivery services are delayed and thus waste of money. So high speed road infrastructure will help reduce this wastage. It is also seen as a problem that the development activities of Colombo city have not been carried out considering the needs of future development. As opposed to high-speed roads, activities like upgrading of existing railways, construction of new railways on pillars, construction of tunnels will also help in avoiding congestion.
In Hong Kong, a plan was implemented to improve the tunnel by giving the government railway station land to the private sector. It is necessary for us to implement a suitable method for our country.
We started the light rail project with the help of Japan. Those activities were stopped with the change of regime. A major problem in this country is that policies change when the government changes. We have brought the Central Bank Act, State Financial Management Act and Economic Exchange Act to solve these issues.
Improvement of road infrastructure is also very important for economic development. For that, we are strengthening our relations with India and working with the expectation of establishing land connections. For that, a bridge will have to be constructed for a distance of 50 km. So with the availability of new technical knowledge of bridge construction. It will also lead our future engineers to get construction related options.
So the country will develop. India’s export and import activities will be facilitated through Sri Lankan ports. The distribution cost of the country will be reduced by 50 percent. There will be facilities for port operations. But for these to be possible, it is very necessary to act with consistent principles,” he said. Addressing the Minister of Transport, Highways and Mass Media, Kalanithi Bandula Gunawardena, the current Presidential Task Force Pradhani Sagala Ratnayake has made a constructive contribution to the launch of this project in 2019. In order to change the history of Sri Lanka’s road development, the Port Entrance Expressway built on top of these pillars has been constructed under a loan of about 300 million US dollars from the Asian Development Bank.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe as a national leader with economic vision to make the country a developed country with a per capita income of more than 20,000 US dollars by 2048 has presented a national program to revitalize the nation. It is expected to be enacted in the future. This Port Access Expressway will contribute greatly to the country in implementing its plan to create an export-oriented economy. This will give room for foreign direct investment,” he said.
Anura Dissanayake, Secretary to the Prime Minister, Engineer Ranjith Rupasinghe, Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Highways, Takabumi Kadano, Sri Lanka representative of the Asian Development Bank, Liu Weimin, President of the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and many secretaries of the Ministry, professors, university students and school students participated in the event.
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