Loss due to travel restrictions surpasses projected cost of Ruwanpura Expressway phase 1

by Sanath Nanayakkare

State Minister Ajith Nivard Cabraal yesterday said travel restrictions from May 14 to 17 had cost the country as much as Rs. 60 billion.

This amount is higher than the Ruwanpura Expressway’s 24.3 km Phase-1 segment from Kahathuduwa to Ingiriya being constructed by Maga Engineering. The cost of this phase is Rs. 54.7 billion, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Minister Cabraal said the daily loss to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to the travel restrictions was over Rs. 15 billion.

“If the country is closed for 10 days, the loss to GDP will be Rs.150 billion, and it is 1% of the GDP. The total value of the country’s GDP is Rs. 1.5 trillion.

However, since certain sectors of the economy were active at the time despite the travel restrictions, the daily loss was around Rs. 15 billion,” Minister Cabraal said.

Meanwhile, the state minister said in parliament on Tuesday that Sri Lanka had spent Rs. 138 billion on combating the COVID-19 pandemic and for relief measures for the public as well as affected state owned enterprises since March 2020.