Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-01-16

Implementation of Land Surveys and Socio-Economic Surveys of all lands belonging to the Sri Lanka Railways

- Sri Lanka Railways owns a considerable extent of lands set apart by the Government of Sri Lanka, considering the present and future needs. Encroachment on railway lands and utilizing them due to various socio- economic and political reasons have resulted in a number of problems with regard to clear demarcation of boundaries and this has become a hindrance for the improvement of railway operations and its modernization activities. The Sri Lanka Railways has given around 7,000 plots of land on lease basis with a view to generating revenue and the management of such lands and the collection of outstanding lease payments are not carried out satisfactorily.

Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. Nimal Siripala de Silva, the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, to conduct surveys covering all lands belonging to the Sri Lanka Railways, in order to define the boundaries of the railway lands, to map out them accurately and as well as to conduct socio-economic surveys covering encroachment of all railway lands to resettle the encroachers residing on them and to formalize the management of railway lands given on lease basis, was approved by the Cabinet.