Sri Lanka Railways Forum

Train services have been temporarily suspended between Kottawa and Avissawella. The Commercial Superintendent of Railways Wijaya Samarasinghe said that due to the renovation of the rail track the services were suspended yesterday morning until 4.10 today evening.

During this period train services will be available from Fort to Kottawa on the Kelani-weli line.

Source: SLR

A racket involving train tickets has been uncovered at the Fort Railway Station and a suspect has been arrested in connection with re-selling train tickets to Colombo-Batticoloa commuters, according to officials at the Railways Security Division.

The Colombo-Batticoloa ticket which is priced at Rs. 500 had been resold many times a day to commuters traveling from Colombo. It is estimated that the racket was yielding Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 15,000 a day.

A large number of people are suspected to be involved in the racket and an investigation has been launched.

Source: Dailymirror

Having read Raisa Wickrematunge’s article under the above heading in your journal of 7th instant, it might be of interest to record an observation made by me for controlling the corrosion in rails in what seems a less expensive method than the application of anti-corrosive paint. This was during a walk along Marine Drive which runs side-by-side with the rail track between Bambalapitiya and Wellawatte.

The fish-plates, nuts and bolts used to join the rails and the surrounding area have been given a coat of oil to keep them free of corrosion in order to facilitate subsequent track maintenance. While the rest of the rail, other than the running surface, shows signs of corrosion, the oil coated areas remain free of corrosion.

The Railway Authority must be removing vast quantities of used engine oil from its engines at specified intervals during maintenance services. This oil, unless it is already being put to some other beneficial use, could be utilised instead of anti-corrosive paint to coat the tracks (avoiding the running surface of course) to keep corrosion at bay, similar to the manner in which the fish-plates have been treated, thus extending the lifespan of the rails.

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One of the largest development projects in the works is the renovation of Sri Lanka’s railways. While this is a more than laudable attempt to improve accessibility, it seems that small but crucial details may have been overlooked with regard to rail maintenance.
Painting the railway might seem like a mere afterthought, simply something to make the structure look aesthetically pleasing. In fact, painting the rails is vital to maintain their durability. Neglecting to paint them means putting the lives of thousands at great risk of a disaster.

The media has extensively covered the Northern and Southern Railway Projects in the past. India generously extended a line of credit for USD 185 million to reconstruct the rail line between Omanthai and Pallai. This was part of a larger deal to develop the infrastructure of the Northern Province, a project once again funded by India, which is extending a total of USD 425 million in credit. And that’s not counting the renovation of the Colombo-Matara rail link, for which India is providing USD 167.4 million.

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The Sri Lanka Railways will sign a contract with IRCON International Limited of India to reconstruct the Northern railway line from Medawachchiya to Madhu Road at a cost of US$ 81 million.

The Northern rail track along this stretch from Medawachchiya to Madhu Road and its railway stations were severely damaged by the LTTE during the war.

A Sri Lanka Railway spokesman said the distance from Medawachchiya to Madhu Road is 43 km and the construction is expected to be completed within the next two and half years.

The stretch will be reconstructed enabling trains to travel at a speed of 120kmph on the Northern railway line.

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Sri Lanka is financing the purchase of rails to re-build tracks in the former war-torn eastern areas with loans from Hatton National Bank and UniCredit Bank of Austria, a senior minister said.

Sri Lanka’s ministry of transport has signed a 8,955,653 Euro deal with Voestalpine Schienen Gmbh of Australia to buy rails to upgrade the eastern railway, on January 28.

UniCredit Bank of Austria will finance 85 percent of the contract under a Austrian government export credit scheme and the balance 15 percent will come from Sri Lanka’s Hatton National Bank, information minister Anura Yapa told reporters.

UniCredit Bank will loan 8.5 million Euros including 887,695 euro to cover an export credit insurance premium to be paid to OeKB of Austria, at a premium of 2,375 percent over the 6-month Euro interbank offered rate.

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Sri Lanka Railways has made arrangements to sign a contract with an Indian firm ‘Ircon’ to re-lay rail tracks from Medawachchiya to Madhu Road, a distance of 43 kilometers.

The rail track along this stretch was dismantled by the LTTE over a decade ago to build bunkers for their terrorist activities. The cost of relaying the tracks is estimated at US dollars 810 million.

The agreement includes the reconstruction of the Madhu Road Railway Station and Nerikulam station in between.

After the re-laying of the track to Madhu Road, the same Indian company would construct the track to Talaimannar, which is 63 kilometers from the Madhu Road. The cost for this stretch is estimated at US dollars 143 million.

The first phase would take two years to complete while the second would take a further two and a half years, Sri Lanka Railways said.

source : the island