Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday (May 7) virtually inaugurated the construction work on the first phase of the Ruwanpura Expressway. The first phase of the proposed expressway is a stretch of 24.3 kilometres from Kahathuduwa to Ingiriya.
The event unfolded at Temple Trees, Colombo on Friday with the participation of a limited number of guests in compliance with the health guidelines.
The first phase of Ruwanpura Expressway is expected to be completed by 2024. A local company has been selected as the construction contractor of the first section of the expressway at a cost of Rs. 54.7 billion. Ruwanpura Expressway, which stretches across 73.9 kilometres from Kahathuduwa to Pelmadulla via Horana-Ingiriya-Kiriella-Kuruwita-Ratnapura, is expected to be constructed under three phases.
Phase I extends from Kahathuduwa to Ingiriya (24.3 km), Phase II from Ingiriya to Ratnapura (26.2 km), and Phase III from Ratnapura to Pelmadulla (21.4 km). The project was first envisaged by the Mahinda Chinthana manifesto in 2014. Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Premier Rajapaksa said irrespective of obstacles, challenges and difficulties, the Government will always remain committed to policies and development programs it has put forward until they become realities.
He said “We started the Southern Expressway as the first Expressway in Sri Lanka in 2006 with a battle against terrorism in the country. Today, we are embarking on the Ruwanpura Expressway at a challenging time when not only the country but the whole world is gripped by the Covid-19 pandemic,” the Prime Minister said. The Prime Minister said, “We are launching the Seventh Expressway in Sri Lanka. I remember from the early days when highways were being built, our dear people in Sabaragamuwa asked us when a highway would be built to Ratnapura.”
Premier Rajapaksa said “We had planned to start work on the Ruwanpura Expressway in 2014. We thought that the Government which came to power in 2015 would start where we stopped the development of the country. They did not want to develop the country. Therefore, everything we had started was stopped by the previous Government.”
The Prime Minister said that the previous Government had not stopped at that and took revenge. “We were taken before Courts and Commissions.” He said “We took back a country where national security and economy had been affected and development had come to a standstill.
But we gladly accepted the challenge. We always wanted to give the best to this country and its people. We wanted to fulfill the expectations of the people.
Highways Minister Johnston Fernando said that the implementation of the project is another manifestation of the Government’s commitment to realise the visions and policies of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’ in line with plans for sustainable development.
He said that the Government’s development drive was in progress despite the threats and challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic that could not be permitted to hinder achievement of people’s aspirations.
Minister Fernando said the people in districts of Colombo, Kalutara, Ratnapura, Badulla, Nuwara Eliya, Moneragala and Hambantota would be directly benefited by the new expressway which provides them with opportunity to transport their produce including tea, apparel, minor export crops and a boom to the gem industry with ease of travelling to find markets, decreases in congestions and costs of fuel and time.