Sri Lanka Railways Forum

Sri Lanka will invite a private operator to build an optical fibre backbone in partnership with the state-owned railway system, a senior minister said.

Sri Lanka’s transport ministry which runs the railways department had been given approval to start looking for a telecom operator to lease the country’s 1,200 kilometres of railway tracks, information minister Anura Yapa said.

The transport ministry has already completed a preliminary study with the help of the island’s telecom regulator, a note submitted to the cabinet by the ministry said.

Several telecom firms had already asked permission from the railways department to build a fibre optic network on railway land.

The ministry has sought approval to tender for a private sector partner to set up an “enterprise with the co-ordination of the state and the private sector.”

Sri Lanka’s rail network radiates from Colombo to the north up to Jaffna, though trains now operate only to Vavuniya town as territory beyond the town is controlled by the Tamil Tigers.

Another track runs to the east towards Trincomalee and Batticaloa in the east. Tracks also go along the western coast northwards to Puttalam and the south to Matara.

Another track goes to the Central Hill region and terminates in Matale while yet another track winds its way towards Ratnapura and Nuwara Eliya.

Sri Lanka’s railway department is cash strapped and its tracks need maintenance. In some countries partnerships with fast growing fibre optic firms have become a new source of value for ailing railways.

Source: Lanka Business Online

Sri Lanka Railways Forum Note: The above news report is in error, there are no railway lines to either Ratnapura or Nuwara Eliya. We suspect that they meant the Badulla and Avissawella railway lines.

Tags: badulla, batticaloa, fibre optic network, matale, private operator, private sector, railway department, railway land, railway lines, railway system, ratnapura, sri lanka railways, telecom firms, telecom operator, telecom regulator, transport ministry

                            

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 19th, 2008 at 10:16 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.