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| Sunday, 14 November 2004 |
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Colombo Katunayake highway reconstruction soon by Hiran H.Senewiratne The government is planning to call for expression of interest, to commence the re-construction work on the abandoned Colombo - Katunayake express highway and to select a suitable foreign investor/investors, before the end of this year. The Ministry of Highways is now in the process of preparing necessary documents to advertise in local newspapers and Internet by next week, to get a reputed international investor for the project,Transport Ministry sources revealed. The government intends to start the construction work of the highway at least by mid 2005, the Secretary to the Ministry of Highways, Sarath Amarasekera said. Under this project the prospective investor would have to arrange funds and design this 25 Km long expressway.The investor would have to invest more than US $ 155 million to complete the entire construction work of the project,he emphasised. At present, nearly 30 per cent of the construction work has been completed, which had cost more than US $ 44 million, Amarasekera noted. He said that the government will ensure the investor the repayment of the investment amount and profits, on a Annuity payment basis . "This is the first time the government is adopting a re-payment scheme of this nature for a major infrastructure development program in the country," he added. According to Amarsekera, the revenue risk will be borne by the government, while the technical risk will be borne by the investor, which are the main features of this Annuity scheme. The government expects a concessionary repayment payback during periods between 15-20 years from the prospective investor, once the project is completed, he said. It is planned to complete the construction work in three years. Once the re- construction work commences by mid 2005, it is scheduled to be completed by year 2008, Secretory to the Ministry of Highways said. Since the expressway will be a toll road it would take nearly ten years to earn revenue out of it , he said. At the moment 90 per cent of lands have been acquired by the government, and it is expected to acquire another 10 per cent of land shortly once the authorities find a suitable relocation for the peole in the area, Amarasekera concluded. |
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