Johnston: New project underway to ease traffic congestion

Chief Government Whip and Highways Minister Johnston Fernando said that road networks of Colombo and other main cities in every district would be developed by integrating and redesigning them using the latest technology to make traffic jams a thing of the past.

Speaking at a meeting held at the Ministry of Highways yesterday (12) on finding solutions to traffic congestion in Colombo and main cities, the minister said that with the number of vehicles increasing day by day, roads of the main cities had become congested and traffic policemen were overworked.A new project would be introduced to end traffic jams by managing vehicular flows by introducing new entry points and alternative routes with new roads in and around the main cities.

 The new project would be implemented first in the cities of Colombo, Kandy, Gampaha, Galle and Kurunegala, Minister Fernando said, adding that it would be gradually introduced to the other main cities in every district. A recent research by the experts at the University of Moratuwa has revealed that from 2008-2018, the number of buses increased by 36 percent and the number of other vehicles increased by 130 per cent in the country.

 “We incur  massive financial and man-hour losses due to traffic congestion due to the absence of proper traffic management in Greater Colombo areas and the loss has been estimated to be over Rs 32 billion a year. Our country is losing 1.5 percent of the GDP due to traffic congestion. Our road network in the city is not capable of handling increasing traffic flows. We have identified nine main roads leading to Colombo and suburbs for the first stage’s development. Similarly, 15 such roads in and around the Gampaha city, 12 roads in Kandy and eight roads in and around Galle would also be developed to solve the traffic congestion in those cities. In addition, two new bridges would be built across the Ittepana and Madu rivers to end traffic congestion in Galle by introducing an alternative route. In order to end traffic congestion in Kurunegala city an alternative route would be constructed while developing the outer-circular road and introducing flyovers at Yangalmodera, Alawwa, Mahawa and Muththettugala,” the Minister said.

 Minister Fernando said that people of Colombo and surrounding areas had blamed successive governments for their failure to tackle the issue. The new project would solve their problems, he added.

 Among those present were Secretary to the Ministry of Highways R.W.R. Pemasiri, Chairman of the Road Development Authority Chaminda Athaluwage, Director General of RDA Sardha Weerakoon and top officials of the ministry (SI)