Proposed Katunayake Expressway 'Dangling in mid Air'

by Elmo Leonard

The Colombo-Katunayake Expressway (CKE), now stalled, and having moved slower than turtle-pace for over 20 years, should be abandoned, architect and country planner, Surath Wickremasinghe said.

Instead, Wickremasinghe advocated building the expressway as an overpass along the existing railway line from Colombo to Katunayake.

It would jack up the cost of the 25 kilometre stretch, connecting the capital city of Colombo with the only international airport, to $500 million, making it the most expensive highway in the world. But, Wickremasinghe, argued, that in the short and long term, it would continue to bring in economic gain, during a seminar on `Expressways', organised by the Chamber of Construction Industry of Sri Lanka (CCISL), and attended by engineers and town planners from home, India and Japan.

Other speakers suggested that government get the funds needed through the public, like issuing treasury bills, necessitating pay back, with interest.

BOO

Wickremasinghe said that government need not bear any expense, it being an ideal opportunity, to give out the project on a Build-Own-Operate (BOO) or Build-Own-Transfer (BOT) basis.

The earlier planned expressway will lead to, at Peliyagoda, causing road blocks, wastage of fuel and time in reaching Colombo.

If the expressway is constructed over the existing railway lines, there will be minimum land acquisition, demolition of houses and dislocation of population. It will serve a large catchment of population, as to the east of the railway lines lies the airport, the Free Trade Zone, mega industrial complexes and housing projects at Ja-Ela and the Ekala Industrial Estate.

With so much industrial activity around, no tourism complexes or other economic activity in the vicinity, the expressway should be linked to the Colombo Port, the city of Colombo and the airport.

Currently, over 1,500 containers come in, or leave the Colombo Port. Now, there is only one entry point to the Colombo Port and the traffic congestion is alarming. With the expansion of the port, container traffic to the Colombo Port will double within the next three years and make Colombo inaccessible to the public. Even reaching the airport from Colombo, will become a very difficult task.

If there are appropriate linkages to all economically important locations, including urban development, container terminals, and commercial development, the economic benefits generated would be immense.

Government could sell the stockpiled sand, Wickremasinghe said. (To ease the current shortage of sand, part of it has been sold). In October 2002, when the project was suspended, an estimated 1.6 million cubic metres of sand had been stockpiled and $40 million was incurred on the project, the Road Development Authority's project director for CKE, M. P. K. I. Gunaratne said.

National highway

Gunaratne said that successive governments had emphasised the need to develop the island's infrastructure. A national highway system was long overdue. It was long accepted that an integrated road network is a necessary precondition for achieving a high economic growth rate.

It had also been accepted that the private sector should be brought in, to ease the financial burden on government.

Wickremasinghe said that there was no consideration for the damage the expressway will cause the environment and the ecologically sensitive areas of the Muthurajawela (marshy land) sanctuary and the Negombo Lagoon, which will have to be filled up for the roadway to be constructed. Even after the roadway is constructed the cost of the maintenance of the expressway due to the settlement of the road will be a major factor to content.

All around the proposed trace way, is marsh and loose soil and if the expressway is built, it would not be possible to construct any other tourism or industry project, alongside.

With no possibility of integrating the proposed expressway with urban or other development activity, there will be a negative return from such high financial investment, Wickremasinghe said.

Dr. Tatsuo Takano, a JICA expert, who made a presentation on `Expressway Experiences in Japan' advocated the building of the expressway, on its current trace. But Wickremasinghe retorted that the Japanese were most sensitive to preserving their environment. In foreign countries environmentally sensitive areas are protected intensively by the governments and public.

However, due to pressure in Sri Lanka, these considerations have been overlooked. A Road Development Authority Chairman had to resign due to his concerns about the proposed expressway, Wickremasinghe said. Wickremasinghe cited recent rapid development of expressways in India.

Likewise, where viable, the private sector must be mobilised to participate in Public Private Partnership - PPP projects.

There are too many expressways planned for Sri Lanka and being a poor country, cannot afford it. Instead, Wickremasinghe advocated the extension of this expressway linking north to south. It could also be linked to other expressways, leading to Kandy and Anuradhapura and through it, to Trincomalee and to other parts of the east, Wickremasinghe said. It was made out at the seminar, that Sri Lanka is the only South Asian country which does not have expressways.

The Highways Secretary, said that foreign consultants and contractors take time to design and construct. Wickremasinghe said that the time was right to open up the road sector to local road consultancy firms and contractors, making available third generation construction technology and complete construction faster.

Or else, Sri Lanka as a nation will not be competitive with South Asia, or any other Asian country.