Sri Lanka Railways Forum

Sri Lanka has reestablished the cargo transport using the country’s rail system for the first time in four decades with transporting a train-load of containers from the Trincomalee port to the Colombo port recently.

SG Logistics, a part of the Expolanka group, carried out the operation to take the empty containers from the Prima Factory in Trincomalee and bring the laden containers to Colombo.

“This is the first time in the history of the Colombo Port that a load of export containers entered via train. It certainly is groundbreaking in the logistics business � and we at Expolanka Group are proud to have been the first to do this,” Niroza Gazzali, CEO, SG Logistics said in a statement.

Gazzali said, SG Logistics, a partner of the DB Schenker Network, is currently working very closely with Sri Lanka Railways to use green technology to transport cargo to the port by rail.

Normally the containers are transported in Sri Lanka by trucks on the roadways causing traffic congestion and delays. The transport by rail allows for bulk movement in one run with less logistics problems and enables single point tracking.

He said the company is confident of finding the necessary solutions to make this a common mode for transporting containers across the country.

“A train can generally carry around 20-24 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent container Units). However, we decided to carry out the first operation with just 10 TEUs as we were unsure of the local track conditions for the operation,” the CEO said adding that the operation was totally successful.

“The company is keen to follow top global trends, and are currently focusing on the latest, being �Green Logistics’ � under which train transportation comes highly recommended,” Gazzali said.

General Manager of Sri Lanka Railways B. A. P. Ariyaratne said the successful transport of the 10 containers by SG Logistics was a big achievement since the operation was done with very limited and existing resources available.

He said the Railway was initially built to transport coffee and tea from the hill country to Colombo for export and freight transport was the main source of business but with the population growth in the sixties, the passenger transport has become the main source of business.

Source:Colombopage

The Sri Lankan government has decided to award the contract to construct the Northern Rail way Line from Pallai to Kankasanthurai (KKS) to the same Indian company that is constructing the segment from Omanthai to Pallai.

On a proposal put forward by the President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Cabinet has approved awarding the contract to Indian Railway Construction International Ltd. (lRCON) at a cost of US$ 149.3 million.

EXIM Bank of India is to provide the financial support for the construction of Northern Railway Line. IRCON is a fully government owned company of India.

The Northern Railway Line from Vavuniya to Kankasanthurai was completely destroyed by the terrorist activities of Tamil Tiger rebels when the region was under the terrorist group’s control.

The line has been restored now from Vavuniya to Omanthai and trains are being operated up to Omanthai at present.

Source: Colombopage

Reconstrcution of Sri Lanka’s Northern Railway Lline from Omanthai to Jaffna may be delayed due to de-mining issues, an Indian envoy has said.

Deputy Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Vikram Misri has said the reconstruction work of the railway line undertaken by the Indian government could get delayed due to the de-mining programme.

However, the Deputy High Commissioner has said the Indian government would accelerate the construction work of the Medawachchiya – Thalaimannar railway line.

Misri has made this statement during a meeting at the Vavuniya District Secretariat.

Source: Colombopage

The Railway Authority decided to continue the weekend special express train from Colombo to Kandy as a daily train from 15th of this month.

This express train leaves Colombo Fort at 9.30 a.m. and returns from Kandy at 5.30p.m.

Source: Dailynews

Three of the 20 new power sets imported from India under an Indian loan scheme will arrive in Sri Lanka in mid-July.

A Transport Ministry spokesman said under the Indian loan scheme, 20 new power sets and three units of locomotives will be provided to Sri Lanka. Six power sets out of 20 have already been handed over to the Sri Lankan government, he said. The balance 11 new power sets will arrive in the country by March.

Source: Dailynews

A railway disaster due to the removal of 160 ballast nails between Mailambaveli and Tannamunai on the Colombo – Batticoloa railway line had been averted due to the vigilance of the train’s engineer, railway sources said.

The Batticaloa bound train had left Colombo Fort at engineer on Thursday July 7.

The engineer however had been able to spot the absence of ballast nails of the track from a considerable distance and hence brought the train to a stop.

As this appears to be a sabotage two police teams from Baticoloa police headquarters and Erawur police station have been deployed to investigate into the incident.

According to the S. Vinayagam, a work inspector of the Railway Department now attached to the Baticaloa Railway Station 160 nails had been removed from the track between 211 and 212 ½ km posts on the line from Mailambaveli to Tannamunai . 58 removed nails have been found scattered over the railway line while other nails were found to be missing.

On receiving information about the removal of the nails the work inspector has informed the chief engineer of the Baticaloa and the police about the incident.

Source: Dailymirror

A Colombo Court yesterday ordered the squatters who had encroached on Railway property at Bloemendhal Road to show cause by August 2 as to why they should not be ejected from the land.

When the matter was taken up for inquiry before Colombo Additional Magistrate Tikiri Bandara Jayathilaka, Counsel Gunaratna Wanninayake and Mervin De Silva appearing with Wasantha Esalage said the squatters had occupied the property for several decades and they had been provided with common amenities like water and electricity.

The counsel said the squatters were charged in court in an ad hoc manner and some of them were so poor they could not even afford to pay for litigation. Therefore the counsel requested the court to look into to the matter in a humane way and provide them with some relief.

Source: Dailymirror