Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-03-27

The Development of the Kandy Suburban Railway (KSR) as a solution to minimize the traffic congestion in the Kandy Metropolitan Region (KMR)

The population in the Kandy district is around 1.4 million and out of which about 150,000 are the residents of the Kandy Metropolitan Region. Daily inflow of vehicles to the KMR is about 55,000 and the 3 access roads available are not at all sufficient for the fulfillment of the present and the future transport requirements and the roads cannot be further widened due to extensive urbanization. Due to this reason, a proposal has been made to implement a Kandy Suburban Railway Development Project to minimize the acute traffic congestion prevalent in Kandy and the Asian Development Bank has expressed its willingness to provide loan assistance for the purpose. Accordingly, the information submitted to the Cabinet by Hon. Nimal Siripala de Silva, the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, to the effect that proposals have been called from appropriate institutions to obtain consultancy services necessary for the followings road development activities, was noted by the Cabinet.

* Increasing the railway traffic capacity of the main line from Rambukkana to Kadugannawa;
* Construction of Double Lines from Kadugannawa to Katugastota or Wallegagama (Matale Line);
* Rehabilitation of the track section from Katugastota to Matale;
* Improvement of the traffic capacity in the section from Peradeniya junction to Gampola.