Sri Lanka Railways Forum

Sri Lanka plans to rehabilitate a tsunami-hit coastal railway line at a cost of 167.4 million dollar using an Indian credit line, a minister said.

The proposed project that extends the railway line beyond Matara, a town in the southern tip of the island, will be completed within three years, information minister Anura Yapa said.

Two Indian state firms, RITES Ltd, and IRCON Ltd, have given the nod by Sri Lanka’s cabinet of ministers to supply equipment and undertake the project in partnership with Sri Lanka Railways.

Under the project, 20 Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs or power sets)- a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on board diesel engines- will be shipped from India. Around three M8 type locomotives will also be brought down.

According to the 2005 post tsunami estimates of the Asian Development Bank, the damage to the southern railway corridor was estimated at 15 million dollars.

The replacement of equipment, damage repair and restoration of the railway corridor was estimated at 130 million dollars.

This is the most important rail corridor in Sri Lanka carrying around 78,000 passengers per day and freight from the Port of Galle.

Sri Lanka Railways rehabilitated the torn railway track at a minimal cost and made it possible to run trains with in weeks of the December 2004 tsunami.

Of the 160 kilometre long corridor, approximately 20 kilometres have suffered severe damage.

Total loss for all factors was estimated at 1,000 million dollars or 4.6 percent of 2005 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while restoration cost was estimated at 1,600 million dollars or 7.3 percent of GDP.
 
The 2004 tsunami struck against 1,000 kilometres of the country’s coastline and as a result, over 35,000 died and 443,000 were displaced.
 
Source: Lanka Business Online

Tags: asian development bank, diesel locomotives, galle, locomotive engines, proposed project, railway corridor, railway line, railway track, southern railway

                            

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