Life span of 51 railway engines have expired by 75 percent
Transport Minister Dulles Alahapperuma informed Parliament yesterday that the life span of 75 percent of 51 railway engines had expired.
The Minister said this in answer to a question by UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake.
Mr. Alahapperuma said that 13 of these engines had been brought to the country in 1954.
In 1948, the Minister said, Sri Lanka had 1685 kilometres of railroads, and this number had declined to 1386 kilometres by 1992.
However, this number had increased up to 1430 kilometres by 2008.
Mr. Karunanayake asked why the kilometres of rail roads had declined compared to 1948, the Minister replied that the non-operation of railway lines from Vavuniya to Kankesanthurai and Medawachchiya to Talaimannar, was the reason for it.
The length of railway track between Kankasanthurai and Vavuniya is 159 kilometres and from Medavachchiya to Thalaimannar 104 kilometres.
“The government had to spend US Dollar 75 to transport a ton of goods from Colombo to Jaffna by sea or air.
With the opening of the A9 road, we have been able to reduce it to US Dollar 23. That’s why President Mahinda Rajapaksa has given instructions to construct these two railway lines as soon as possible.
Mr. Alahapperuma stressed the need to increase the railway income by transporting goods.
We said this income share from the freight service is only four percent in Sri Lanka, yet it is 30 percent in India.
By Kelum Bandara and Gihan de Chickera
Source: Dailymirror
