Rail News
September 01 , 2021
Four colour-coded elevated rail tracks for Colombo
Daily News
March 31, 2021 (Sri Lanka)
The Cabinet of Ministers granted their consent to construct four colour coded elevated railway tracks to serve the Colombo City limits, Co-Cabinet spokesman Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila said.
This proposal has been submitted by the Urban Development Authority with the intention of reducing traffic congestion in Colombo.
He said the four elevated railway tracks have been colour coded as Red, Green, Blue and Purple. The Red railway track which is 42 Km long will be constructed from Ragama to Kottawa via Pita Kotte.
The Green railway track (28 Km) will be constructed from Moratuwa to Kelaniya via Narahenpita.
The Blue railway track which is 23 km long will be constructed from Kottawa to Hunupitiya via Isurupaya, Pelawatte in Battaramulla.
The Purple railway track will be constructed from the Port City in Colombo to Athurugiriya via Borella. Minister Gammanpila further added that this project is scheduled to be implemented as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project. This project will address the problem of heavy traffic congestion in morning and evening rush hours by luring motorists to use the comfortable, clean, speedy and punctual trains. The busiest travel corridors, some of which do not have existing train services, have been identified in conceptualizing the train services. It will drastically cut travel times, as motorists generally spend around 90 minutes to reach Colombo from some of the urban areas. Such elevated train systems are already in operation in many countries.
The City Bus service, whereby motorists can park their cars at a designated location and then come to Colombo by comfortable SLTB A/C buses, has already become a success and the authorities expect to expand the service to cover more routes and cities in the near future.
Source
https://www.dailynews.lk/2021/03/31/local/245483/four-colour-coded-elevated-rail-tracks-colombo
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