Sri Lanka railway eyes freight market
April 28, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run railway service has started a goods wagon repair workshop aimed at improving maintenance and more carriage of freight in order to increase revenues, senior officials said.
Transport Minister Dallas Alahapperuma said the government wants to reverse years of neglect of the railway that has reduced it to making heavy annual losses and make it more efficient and able to cover costs.
“Our aim is to revive freight transport by rail,” he said in a speech at the opening of the new repair facility at the main rail yard of Sri Lanka Railway, formerly known as CGR (Ceylon Government Railway).
“The world over, most freight is moved by rail. So we decided to give priority to the movement of goods by rail.”
Two inland container depots are being planned in the suburbs of Sapugaskanda and Ratmalana, north and south of the capital Colombo.
General manager Lalithasiri Gunaruwan said the repair facility was built at a cost of 30 million rupees and was part of the department’s maintenance development effort.
“We can do complete repairs at this workshop,” he told LBO. “Our repair speed can now increase. Fleet repair has to be at a particular speed. Because we did not have the facilities earlier, wagons were not repaired to the expected level.”
Alahapperuma said carriage of freight should improve the railway’s earnings and not make it a burden on the government treasury.
“Then it will be a relief to the treasury, which means it will be a relief to all citizens as the treasury depends on the taxes collected from the people.”
Sri Lanka’s over-staffed state railways and bus services – which also provide subsidized travel to state workers – are a burden on the rest of the population who use alternative sources of transport as well as the rural poor who walk or bicycle.
Sri Lanka Railways made an operational loss of 4,553 million rupees in 2008, up six percent from a year ago.
Alahapperuma said both the port and airport were connected by rail but the tracks were now abandoned and in a state of disrepair as they had not been used for decades.
He said traffic congestion on roads near the port was caused largely by container trucks entering or leaving the port.
“Freight transport by road, especially containers, contributes to traffic congestion.”
source: LBO
Tags: freight, goods wagon, repair workshop
