The Road Development Authority (RDA) is awaiting the green light from the External Resources Department (ERD) to recommence the construction of three major expressway projects that have been on hold for the past four years due to the country’s prevailing economic situation.
Accordingly, the RDA plans to restart the construction of the Ruwanpura Expressway Project (REP), Central Expressway Project (CEP), and the Elevated Highway Project (EHP) from the New Kelani Bridge (NKB) to Athurugiriya.
Sri Lanka sealed a deal on Wednesday (26) with the Official Creditor Committee (OCC) of the Paris Club to restructure its debt owed to bilateral lenders, including India.
Additionally, the country signed a separate agreement with China’s Export-Import (Exim) Bank to rewrite its debt treatment.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe announced that debt restructuring agreements would defer all payments on bilateral loans to foreign countries until 2028.
Furthermore, Sri Lanka has been granted until 2043 to repay these loans under concessional terms.
Meanwhile, Transport and Highways Minister Dr Bandula Gunawardana last year gave an assurance that all development projects that had been stopped would be restarted once the debt restructuring programme was completed.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning, RDA Director General (DG) S.M.P. Suriyabandara stated that the ERD should reactivate the loans already approved and inform the RDA that it could proceed with the construction of pending projects.
“We are planning to proceed on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis if possible and also to invite investors depending on the traffic forecast,” he said.
Elaborating on the projects in progress, Suriyabandara noted that the REP was halted midway, and therefore, construction work on the REP would commence once they received the green light.
As reported by The Sunday Morning in April, the RDA has already resumed land acquisition for the REP.
The proposed Ruwanpura Expressway connects the Western Province with the Sabaragamuwa Province, spanning from Kahathuduwa to Pelmadulla to Ratnapura.
Divided into three phases, Phase I covers Kahathuduwa to Ingiriya, Phase II extends from Ingiriya to Ratnapura, and Phase III runs from Ratnapura to Pelmadulla.
Despite initial plans for multiple contractors, the Cabinet removed the Chinese contractor from Phase I due to financial concerns and awarded the project to Maga Engineering Ltd.
However, the project was later abandoned by the contractors citing financial difficulties. The overall cost of the Ruwanpura Expressway was initially estimated at Rs. 276.3 billion.
Suriyabandara said: “We are also waiting to reactivate the Exim Bank’s funding approved for CEP Section I from Kadawatha to Mirigama. This section is really important and we are hopeful that we will be able to commence it soon.”
He also said that in the CEP, the RDA was looking at opening up Section III (the remaining stretch from Rambukkana to Galagedara) and Section IV for investments.
Construction of the Central Expressway was planned to be carried out in four stages: Section I, a 37 km section from Kadawatha to Mirigama; Section II, a 40 km section between Mirigama and Kurunegala; Section III, a 33 km section from Pothuhera to Galagedara; and Section IV, a 60 km section from Kurunegala to Dambulla.
The construction of Section I of the project is currently being carried out by a Chinese company with funds from China’s Exim bank. However, the construction work was impacted by the ongoing economic crisis with the temporary suspension of the releasing of funds from the Exim Bank.
Section II was constructed by local contractors and is open to the public.
The 34 km-long Section III from Pothuhera to Galagedara was to be constructed by a Japanese contractor at an estimated cost of around Rs. 135 billion with a loan obtained from Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank (TMB) Japan.
However, due to the delay in the two parties reaching an agreement, the Government in 2020 removed Japanese contractors from Section III of the CEP.
For Section IV, there had been discussions that the construction would be awarded to a UK-based contractor, but nothing official has been finalised in this regard yet.
“Japanese investors are keen on CEP Section III and a group recently visited this section. However, we haven’t commenced any official communications with the Japanese Embassy regarding the recommencement of the project. Similarly, Section IV is also pending for investments,” explained the RDA DG.
Additionally, the DG stressed that the RDA had initially considered applying a BOT-basis investment to the EHP.
“There are five court cases pending, but we haven’t decided to change the stretch yet. All the stretches that we have identified pass through human settlements. There is only one stretch that doesn’t pass through houses, but if that stretch is chosen, a number of paddy fields in the Battaramulla and Thalangama area will be affected.
“Therefore, we haven’t decided to change the stretch yet. However, we are exploring possibilities for commencing the project,” said Suriyabandara.
The completion of several notable road construction projects has been delayed thus far. These include the Transport Connectivity and Asset Management Project (TCAMP) funded by the World Bank; improvements to Central Expressway connectivity roads in Kandy and its suburbs by the Exim Bank of India; Climate Resilience Improvement Project by the World Bank; Integrated Road Investment Programme (iROAD Programme) by the Asian Development Bank (ADB); Priority Road Project (PRP) 3 – Phase I – (A) funded by the China Development Bank (CDB) and the Government of Sri Lanka and Phase II funded by the CDB; Southern Road Connectivity Project (SRCP) by the ADB; and rehabilitation/improvement of the Medawachchiya-Horowpothana Road (10+000 to 23+000) and rehabilitation/improvement of Medawachchiya-Horowpothana Road (23+000 to 37+800) under the Northern Road Connectivity Project funded by the ADB.
Most of these projects were to be completed by 2019 and 2020, as per RDA statistics.
In addition, the contract package of OFID/03 Lunugala to Bibile (171+800 km to 190+800 km) of the Badulla Chenkaladi Road Improvement Project (BCRIP) awarded to K.D. Ebert and Sons Holdings Ltd. has been stopped. The BCRIP was funded by the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) to the tune of $ 60 million.
A number of contract packages awarded under the iROAD Programme funded by the ADB have either been terminated or recommended for termination, according to RDA statistics.
Source : the morning
