Sri Lanka is mainly an agrarian country. The chief crop is rice with which the country is almost self-sufficient. Tea, rubber and coconut are also important agricultural crops, with tea being a major foreign exchange earner. In addition, other crops of importance are cocoa and spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, pepper and cloves. Fruit and vegetables, native to both tropical and temperate regions, grow well in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is also a major exporter of precious and semi-precious stones. Within the last few years, remittances from Sri Lankans employed abroad have contributed a large share towards foreign exchange. To transport our agriculture crops & good we need a transport system. Mainly we transport by road & railways. Those days we had a poor road system that doing by bull carts. As the population rises they have made small towns & villages. As the need of good transportation the governments builds road that can ride motor vehicles in major roads.
Southern Express highway
This is the longest Expressway (126 km) out of the proposed Expressway Network. This runs from Kottawa to Matara and this Project includes Galle Port Access Road (4.9 km). Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan International Cooperation (JICA) are the main funding agencies for this project.
This is being constructed to 4-lanes. expect to complete by April 2011
Colombo-Katunayake highway
The construction work of 25.8 km long Expressway has been re- commenced in 2009 with the funding of EXIM Bank of China. The Contractor for this work is China Metallurgical Group Corporation. The Contract value of the project is Rs. 32,120 Mn (US$ 292 Mn) and it is expected to be completed by the Year 2012
Outer Circular Highway
The Outer Circular Highway (OCH) starts from Southern Expressway (STDP) at Kottawa and traverses through Maharagama, Kaduwela, Biyagama, Mahara, Wattala Divisional Secretariat areas and ends up at Kerawalapitiya. It connects to Colombo - Kandy Expressway (CKH) at Kadawatha and Colombo - Katunayake Expressway (CKE) at Kerawalapitiya. The total length of OCH is 29.1km
Colombo Kandy Alternative Highway
This is a 98 km long highway. The feasibility study of the project has been completed in 2001 and the environmental clearance has been obtained in 2004. The project is to be constructed in 2 stages. 1st stage is from Kadawata to Ambepussa of length 48.3 km. This section was undertaken by a Malaysian Investing firm to be implemented as a public private partnership project.
Since, the Malaysian investor did not proceed with the work for last 3 years due to low traffic density on this road and their concern on returns on investment on a PPP project, the Govermment of Sri Lanka has recently decide to construct the Phase I of the Expressway from Kadawata to Ambepussa with the funding from Asian Development Bank under MultiTrunch Financing facility with effect from the year 2012.
These are some of our major highway projects, in future we are planing to build many highways to link major cities around Sri Lanka.
