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| Sunday, 18 May 2003 |
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From Omanthai to Palali : Stretch of A-9 under renovation by Elmo Leonard A stretch of 96-kilometres of the A-9 highway, from Omanthai to Palali, which would be renovated by end-December, would be traffic-worthy for three to four years. The Rs. 560 million allocated for the repair of the 96-kilometre roadway is insufficient; the Asian Development Bank (ADB) which funds the renovation of the road considered the possibility of making the highway motorable, engineer D. D. Wijemanne told a media conference. The arterial A-9 highway of 322 kilometres, runs through Kandy, Matale, Dambulla, Kekirawa, Mihintale, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Elephant Pass, Chavakachcheri to Jaffna. Much of the roadway had gone to rack and ruin during the 20-year civil strife. Today, around 500 heavily-loaded vehicles ply along this avenue with "incredibly large craters", Chamber of Construction Industry Sri Lanka (CCISL) president, Surath Wickremasinghe said. The entire stretch of the 96-kilometre highway given out to eight local constructors is located in LTTE controlled areas except for two to three kilometres at the Jaffna end. The Sri Lanka Army and the LTTE checkpoints are located at Omanthai and Muwamalai and the road is open for 10 hours per day. Fifty-percent of the roadway was cleared of land mines in February and it would take two more months to demine the full stretch of the road under construction, the media was told. The LTTE wishes that the road be completed, the media conference organised by CCISL, was told. |
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