Facelift for N-E roads

by Ananda KANNANGARA

The Highways Ministry yesterday said that a massive highway construction project in the Northern Province will be commenced shortly, referring the arrival of over 200,000 visitors to the Jaffna peninsula from other parts of the country during the past two months.

Highways Minister T.B. Ekanayake told the Sunday Observer that an allocation of US dollar 3,000 million has already been granted to construct the entire highway network in the North and East.

He said at a time when a peaceful atmosphere prevails in the entire Northern and Eastern districts and people in their thousands from the South have begun to travel to the North it is the duty of his Ministry to expedite the road construction work in the two districts.

He said in addition to main roads which lead to major towns, such as Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Ampara, Kalmunai and Killinochchi in the North and East, all by-roads and other small roads will also be constructed under this project.

The Minister said his Ministry will plan to construct

highways and super grade roads in these two districts in future with the objective of improving fish, dry fish, vegetable and fruit business industries.

He said the widening of the A-9 Road between Colombo and Jaffna will also commenced.

He said 75 per cent of the construction work of the A- 32 road which runs between Vavuniya and Pooneryn has already completed and over 75 per cent construction work of the Silawatura-Murungan Road which has about 60 km and the road between Outtalam and Thalaimannarama Via Mannar has also started.

The Minister said steps have already been taken to construct the main roads from Colombo to Horana, Ratnapura, Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Anuradhapura and Colombo to Kataragama.