Sri Lanka railways to enhance its capacity
Finance Ministry of Sri Lanka, in its annual planning report revealed a major rehabilitation plan to island’s railway service.
According to the report, the railway network that runs over 1,449 km presently carries 64 million passengers and 1.6 million metric tons of goods per year. These amounts represent only 5% of passenger transport and 2% of goods transport in the country. With the planned expansion the government intends to increase the share of passenger transport from 5% to 10% and share of goods transport from 2% to 10% by 2010, says the report.
The government expects to meet this target by investing on railways, especially by rehabilitation of the existing track, extension of the track, rehabilitation of signaling system and procurement of power sets, locomotives and passenger carriages.
China has provided the funds for the expansion through the Exim Bank of China which had provided two concessionary loans of US$ 38.5 million for the procurement of 15 diesel multiple units and another US$ 27 million for the procurement of 100 passenger carriages.
The report says since the railway is one of the most economical modes of transport, the intended expansion will substantially improve the country’s transport services.
Source: Colombo Page
Tags: exim bank, finances, goods transport, locomotives, million metric tons, modes of transport, passenger carriages, passenger transport, procurement, railway network, railway service, railways, rehabilitation plan, signaling system, target, transport services
