Southern Expressway incurs Rs 5.5 B loss
A leading strategist in transport and logistics management revealed that the much-celebrated Southern Expressway (E01) is currently incurring a whopping Rs 5.5 billion loss annually, raising concerns over the cost-effectiveness of such hyped highways.
The annual revenue collected from vehicles using the Expressway is approximately Rs 1 billion, whereas the maintenance and debt service cost is around Rs 6.5 billion," said Prof. Amal S. Kumarage of the Transport and Logistics Management Department of the University of Moratuwa.
The Colombo-Galle section of the Colombo-Matara Expressway, which is now open to the public, is estimated to have cost US$ 742 million. Prof. Kumarage, who was the former Chairman of the National Transport Commission, was speaking at the 46th LBR-LBO Chief Executive Officers' forum at Galle Face Hotel, Colombo. He said due to the dilapidated condition of the public transport, the use of private transport would further increase in the future, exacerbating the traffic congestion.
Citing statistics, he projected the average speed of the vehicular traffic in the City of Colombo would come down to 17.4 km per hour by 2021, from the current speed of 21.6 km, due to the dilapidated public transport sector, which would encourage the public to use private transportation. He added the vehicular speed would further come down to 9.1 km by 2031, should the current trend continues.
He forecast the share of bus transport, which amounts to 55% at present, would drop to 41% by 2021 and the railway transport would remain at the same level at 5%, and privately-owned transport would rise from 26% at present to 38% in 2021.
He maintained the quality of buses today remain the same as in the 50s and train services have showed a degree of improvement since the early 80s. "Both quality and quantity should be maintained at a steady rate," he noted.
"We need to do something radically different to make public transport more appealing to the public. Our country can improve the transport system by bringing in new services like the rapid transport metros, which would take some time to put in place," he said.
"Sri Lanka had the best transport system in Asia after Japan in the 50s, but it had a steady decline since then," he said. He suggested the private sector be encouraged to engage in road building.
Category: Local
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