fatal accident on Southern Highway

A luxury jeep carrying a family of father, mother son and daughter to Tangalle for Sinhala & Tamil New Year holidays from Maharagama toppled over at the 14th mile post at Galanigama on the Southern Highway killing the father.

A.G.D. Shanaka, a 40 year old owner of a jewellery shop at Maharagama died in the accident while his daughter has been hospitalized with serious injuries. The son and his pet parrot escaped without any injury. 

Investigations have revealed that the businessman had not been wearing the seat belt at the time of the accident.
The vehicle crashed on to the center fence, was thrown away about 50 feet and toppled over the businessman who had been thrown out at the impact say eyewitnesses.

Online ticket system for Southern expressway

An on-line system has been introduced for the Southern expressway enabling real time ticket transactions at all entry and exit points and traffic and revenue monitoring.

Dialog Axiata’s subsidiary, Dialog Enterprise partnered with Access Telecommunications Services in providing the service.

A statement said the system was provided to the Road Development Authority which operates the 95 kilometre expressway linking Colombo with Galle.

"The solution provided by Dialog Enterprise would allow officials at RDA to get real time updates on information such as number of vehicles entered, revenue generated from each exit points and the registration numbers of vehicles that have entered or exited the expressway," said the statement.
In the system all point of sales machines are interconnected to the central server system hosted at the Dialog data centre.

Two private buses to operate on Southern Expressway from Friday

Passenger transport via private buses on the Southern Highway will commence on January 27 while two private buses have been permitted, the National Transport Commission (NTC) stated.

The two private buses will work in accordance with the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) bus schedule while the NTC stated that more buses will be employed for passenger transport on the Southern Expressway in the near future.

Unsuitable SLTB bus on the Southern Expressway

Passengers have expressed their displeasure over the deployment of a 'normal' bus belonging to the Sri Lanka Transport Board on the Southern Expressway.
The bus in question had operated from Maharagama to Galle last evening.

The bus which belongs to the Sri Lanka Transport Board commenced its journey from Maharagama to Galle at 6 last evening.

However, owing to protests by the passengers the bus had to be stopped at the police post stationed near the Pinnaduwa access point.

The passengers charged that the bus was not suitable to be used on the Southern Expressway.

The passengers who had reserved seats in advance also charged that they were not aware of the deployment of this bus.

The passengers also noted that a fee of Rs.250  was charged from them for the journey.

When we made inquiries from the Chairman of the Sri Lanka transport Board, M.D.Bandusena he stated that the bus had in fact travelled from Galle to Maharagama and was on its way back to Galle.

First fine on Southern Expressway to Minister Kumara Welgama ????

The maximum speed on the new Southern Express Highway is only 100 KMPH. If anyone exceeds this limit there are equipment in the possession of the related authorities to detect and fines the drivers.

Even though the Operations Director of the new Southern Express Highway B.D.K.Bandara has announced and made an open warning to the public in the media regarding speed limit the Minister of Transport, Kumar Welgama at a meeting said “ I accelerated up to 180 KMPH without feeling anything having driven along it ”.

Should he get a fine for that ??

Southern Expressway collects Rs.1 mn within 12 hours

The newly opened Southern expressway was used by more than 4,530 vehicles within 12 hours of its opening, said its operations director P.D.K. Bandara.

Since its opening yesterday (Nov. 27), an income of Rs. one million was earned through toll charges from 6.00 pm to 6.00 am, he said.

Some of the vehicles’ engine, not up to standards, overheated due to high speed, said Mr. Bandara.

First accident on Southern Expressway

The first accident on the Southern Expressway occurred today (November 28) at 7.15am when a speeding vehicle toppled over injuring two persons, the Kelanigama Police stated.

The vehicle was unable to control its speed causing it to topple making it the first accident on the expressway since it was declared open yesterday (November 27) by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

 

Southern Highway journey begins

Sri Lanka’s first Expressway - the E- 01 Southern Expressway- was declared open by President Mahinda Rajapakse today (November 27).

Sri Lanka President speaking at a public gathering after declaring open the country’s first Expressway stressed that separatist tendencies will fade away when we have better road connectivity in the country.

“The best solution to petty separatism and ethnic divisions is to have closer links among people through an efficient road network,” President Mahinda Rajapaksa said yesterday.

Sri Lanka has turned a new leaf in its road development history, a turn towards the modernization of its road network in line with the best global practices” the President said. He said that the government plans to link all areas of the country through an Expressway network and called it a revolution in road development.

Sri Lanka's President on Sunday unveiled the island's first expressway, linking the capital and the southern city of Galle. The expressway links the island's southern port city of Galle with Colombo. The 96-kilometre (60-mile) four-lane road cost $700 million this new route will reduce congestion on the main coastal highway – the Galle Road- to Galle

Sri Lanka borrowed $178 million from the ADB and sought $317 million from the Japan International Cooperation Agency to finance the project. Japanese peace envoy to Sri Lanka Yashushi Akashi and the Vice President of the ADB were also present on the occasion of this opening ceremony.

The President noted that roads reducing travel time between areas could act as a catalyst for closer links between communities, people and added that this would spur unity and prevent any division within the country.

The President also said that the time when such things were a dream was over and added that this was the moment when dreams come true for Sri Lankans.

“It is another step in our promise to build a new and prosperous Sri Lanka” President said.

“When I was the Prime Minister and also in charge of road development, the people requested me to rebuild the ruined road to the Madhu Church.

I repaired the road and later the Bishop also invited me for the opening.” “However, later the Bishop told me that I have to get permission from the LTTE to travel to Madhu. I totally refused this and told at the time that I would travel to Madhu in the near future but without permission from anyone. This is the type of past we had,” he said.

The President said that soon there would be an Expressway linking Jaffna to Colombo via the A-9 and another from Colombo to Kandy. The Katunayake to Colombo Expressway would be vested in the public at the end of 2012, he added.

He noted that the time when the country’s youth dreamt about such facilities in developed countries was over and added that Sri Lanka would also have facilities equal to developed nations, in the near future.

“I have no doubt that this Expressway would show the path of prosperity for our future generations,” he added.

The President also said that the Expressway would help to promote the whole of South as an investment village and a tourist hub.