UDA, RDA and Housing Ministry in mammoth development in city:

High speed road network reduces economic costs

By Shirajiv Sirimane

Unplanned development has been taking place over the years in the city of Colombo since the colonial era due to it being the capital.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the opening of the Colombo Katunayake highway

A memento presented to R. W. R. Premasiri, Secretary, Ministry of Highways, Ports and Shipping by Ranjith Gunawardane, past president IESL after the presentation. President elect IESL, S.B. Wijekoon looks on.

This unplanned development has resulted in congestion and has also led to many social and economic problems.

In a move to reassess this haphazard development which has a severe impact on infrastructure, the Urban Development Authority(UDA), the Ministry of Housing and the Ministry of Highways have risen to the occasion to find a suitable solution to overcome these problems and organize the city in a manner that will be conducive for the people living in Colombo.

While the Housing Ministry is relocating slums and shanties and giving them a decent environment to live, the UDA is on a mission to beautify the city and has also found a lasting solution to floods in the city - which was a huge problem to city dwellers. Everytime there is the slightest downpour, the city is inundated and goes underwater causing huge inconvenience to city dwellers. The UDA has overcome this problem by creating artificial lakes and also by dredging and cleaning water ways.

The Road Development Authority (RDA) too was faced with a major challenge to ease the ever-increasing traffic congestion which is an uphill task.

The first step towards this was taken with the construction of the Colombo- Katunayake Expressway (CKE) which now enables a drive to the airport from Peliyagoda in just 20 minutes. In addition it has also helped to narrow the distance to Negombo, Puttalam and other areas from Colombo and vice versa.

The idea of developing a high speed link between Colombo and Katunayake was first established in the early 1980s to serve the rapidly expanding industrial areas in the region and to capitalise on tourism. During the last two decades, several alternative routes were studied before finalising the track through Peliyagoda, Mabole and the Muthurajawela marshes, which caused minimum inconvenience to the public and reduced enormous land acquisition costs by avoiding densely populated areas.

After the introduction of a few amendments to the proposed track, approval of the Central Environmental Authority(CEA) was obtained for the 25.8km long expressway. Subsequently, this track was finalised from the new Kelani Bridge-Bandaranaike round-about Peliyagoda to the Bandaranaike International Airport Katunayake and construction commenced.

Today the average traffic at CKE is around 15,875 vehicles per day while the average revenue per day is Rs. 239.36 million as at February 2014 according to figures released recently.

Entrance to the highway in Kaduwela

Elevated Highway

Colombo Katunayake Highway

President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressed a gathering in Ja-ela after commissioning the Colombo - Katunayake Expressway on October 27. The President told the mammoth crowd that the CKE was a fulfilment of a long-felt need of the country.

He said the Expressway project proposal had been tabled over four decades ago. The President said with the opening of the highway the Government has proved that it can successfully meet any challenge thrown at it.

He said the country had the strength to counter any challenge or difficulty if it's for the betterment of the people and the country. Three decades of terrorism, which was the cause of disaster was successfully eradicated.

After eradicating the most brutal and deadly terrorism, the country is positioned in a rapid development path. Moreover, with the dawn of peace the entire population is experiencing the dividends of permanent peace, President Rajapaksa said.

"Those who level baseless allegations against the country on human right issues, never talk about the benefits and outcome of permanent peace. There has been no blood shed for nearly four years with the dawn of peace, but the people who level baseless allegations never utter a single word about this transformation," he said.

He said that the development of a country is gauged by the development of road network in the country and the expressway opened today will provide benefits to locals and foreigners.

R. W. R. Premasiri Secretary to the Ministry of Highways Ports and Shipping said at a forum organised by the Institute of Engineers Sri Lanka recently that another step towards easing traffic was taken with the construction of the Outer Circular Highway (OCH) Project.

The project is being implemented in three phases to connect the Southern Expressway with the Katunayake Expressway. Phase I of the OCH opened to the public on March 8, 2014.

As the CKE is an important segment of the much-awaited north-south link, when the construction of the Outer Circular Highway from Kottawa to Kerawalapitiya is completed the much- awaited north-south connection will be established enabling road users of the CKE to reach the southern parts of the country through the Expressway Network. In turn it will contribute to achieve overall development objectives of the country through the expressway network enabling speedy movement to and fro. This would harness the expected economic benefits to the country with shorter travel times and reduced vehicle operating costs.

Speaking at this interactive session at Kingsbury Hotel Colombo he said that the RDA has prepared a 10 year Master Plan for the development of Highways. This program covers investments from 2008 - 2017.

The 10 year highway development programme consists of Expressway Development, Widening and Improving Existing National Roads, Reduction of Traffic Congestion and Road Safety Improvement, Bridge Renovation and Reconstruction and Road Maintenance.

"It has been planned to develop approximately 800kms of expressway network for Sri Lanka to augment the Road Network. Presently, construction of the expressway network is under different stages of development in the country.'

The Southern Expressway Extension is now in progress and this would be from Godagama to Mattala airport in Hambantota and the four lane Expressway length would be 95 km in length. The investment would be Rs. 200 billion.

"We have now completed the Economic feasibility and surveys are in progress for design and land acquisition."

The Northern Expressway Project (NEP) too is in progress to initially link Colombo with Kandy, Kurunegala and Dambulla.

"This is to be constructed on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis and proposal received from China Merchant Corp. is under evaluation."

Plans are now underway to build a new Kelani Bridge in Peliyagoda so that vehicles could pass over the existing Kelani Bridge.

Subsequent to building this bridge an elevated road would be constructed up to Kirulapone on Baseline Road while another would be built up to Fort.

The proposed Elevated Highway from the New Kelani Bridge to Kirulapone through Baseline Road would be eight km long and the cost would be in excess of Rs. 48,434.80 Million.

The elevated Highway from New Kelani Bridge to Fort through the Harbour Access Road would be of 6 km in length and would have four lanes. The cost would be Rs. 30,000 million.

"The feasibility study and preliminary design for these two projects are in progress."

The RDA is the premier highway authority in the country and is responsible for maintenance and development of the National Highway Network, comprising the Trunk (A Class) and Main (B Class) roads and the planning, design and construction of new highways, bridges and expressways to augment the existing network.

It was also recorded that Sri Lanka's only engineering and technology exhibition for the last 28 years, TECHNO exhibition and awards ceremony which is the annual flagship event of IESL will be held in October at BMICH and Hotel Galadari.

The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited is the print media sponsor of this event.

The only engineering conference, in Sri Lanka,the National Engineering Conference, focusing on global trends would be held on June 26 and 27 at Waters Edge while thee induction and graduation ceremony, for successful students at the IESL Course and IESL Members induction ceremony would be held on August 22 at the BMICH (New Main Hall).