SLR answer to freight transport problems, say official
Sri Lanka’s long-neglected railway system is a useful complement to roads and could take bulk freight transport off the roads, reducing traffic jams, a senior official said.
P P Wijesekera, additional general manager, Sri Lanka Railways, said rail is the best way to move export and import containers in and out of Colombo port.
“For taking containers to and from Colombo port, there’s no other solution than railway,” he told a seminar on transport infrastructure organised by the Chamber of Construction Industry.
“If not, you have to go on the narrow roads of Colombo city which will be at enormous cost as it will increase the traffic congestion.
“It is also the easiest and most sensible way of transporting petroleum products as almost all petroleum storage terminals are located near the tracks.”
Railway also has potential to feed material such as bulk freight like cement and flour from the eastern port of Trincomalee to the rest of the country.
It would be the most sensible way of transport coal from ports to power plants being built or planned.
Railway’s other strengths include its use as city feeder networks for the suburbs of Colombo and other growing metropolitan towns of southern Galle and Kandy in the hill country.
However, he said, to make the best use of rail, railway station stations should be set up in a manner that suits the mode of transport.
“We should not locate railway stations according to the wishes of politicians. They should be at a reasonable distant to cater to the bulk transport requirements of rail.”
Constant stops and starts at railway stations were not economical.
One of the problems of the railway system is that there are too many railway stations set up to close to each other to satisfy the demands of politicians who want to please their constituents, transport experts have said.
Wijesekera said the island has 1,450 km of rail track left today as some lines had been abandoned owing to the ethnic war and other reasons.
Several projects were being implemented to upgrade and expand the system.
These include new rail lines from southern Matara to Kataragama, further south.
The railway also plans to improve its control system on part of the hill country network to ease congestion.
source: LBO
