KOICA provides US$ 4 million grant to RDA

The Korea International Cooperation Agency, (KOICA) provided a grant worth four million USD to the Road Development Authority (RDA) through the Ministry of Highways to implement the Enhancement of National Traffic Database and Capacity Building project. The record of discussion between the governments was signed on 30th November 2021.

The objective of the project is to produce and implement traffic data analysis and management system at the national level for better transport infrastructure development in Sri Lanka.

For the implementation of the project, KOICA engaged a Project Management Consultancy (PMC) team consisting of 3 reputed Korean organisations; Neighbour System,Inc, Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements (KRIHS) and the Korea Engineering Consultants Corporation (KECC).

A team of experts pertaining to the PMC made their inaugural visit to Sri Lanka on 10th February for the project initiation and had a series of discussions with the Road Development Authority and the Ministry of Highways regarding the project implementation.

The team of six experts were hosted by the Secretary of the Ministry of Highways, R.W.R. Pemasiri on 22nd February where the experts held an inception workshop. The event was graced by the presence of the Country Director, KOICA Sri Lanka Office Kim Myung Jin, Deputy Country Directors Kim Youngwhan and Lee Gunwoo. Officials of Road Development Authority, Ministry of Highways and KOICA Sri Lanka office were also present at the occasion.

The team presented their Implementation plan moving forward, detailing the outputs and activities that are in the pipeline. The secretary of the Ministry of Highways emphasized the importance of ensuring that the capacity building components of the project are conducted targeting the young demographic of the organization enabling them to pay the knowledge forward. The parties had a lively discussion on the impact and the aftermath of the project following the workshop.

Addressing the workshop shortly, The KOICA Country Director remarked “With Korea’s advanced technology combined with the unique development experience based on the traffic DB management and traffic demand forecasting, including master plan establishment, traffic survey, and O/D survey activities, this project outcome will serve to produce a highly qualified workforce with practical traffic DB related technologies”

The secretary of the Ministry of Highways, noting the escalating congestion in the suburban areas remarked on its impact on the energy consumption as well as the environment pollution. He further remarked positively on the importance of the capacity building component of the project observing that well trained and knowledgeable manpower is one of the best assets to the Ministry.