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Sri Lanka TRANSPORTATION
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Figure 10. Transportation System, 1988
In 1987 the road network extended 74,954 kilometers, of which
25,504 were maintained by the Ministry of Highways and the
remainder by local governments
(see
fig. 10). During 1984 the
government embarked on a five-year road maintenance program at an
estimated cost of Rs5 billion, to be financed by loans from the
World Bank (see Glossary)
and the Asian Development Bank,
together with a grant from Japan. The total number of registered
motor vehicles in 1986 was about 478,000.
Road haulage is handled by private companies; some businesses
also have their own trucking operations. After 1978 container
transport became an important mode of freight haulage for exports
produced in the investment promotion zones. Intercity haulage is
carried out by trucks. Bullock carts remained important in rural
and suburban areas in the 1980s.
The Ceylon Transport Board had the sole responsibility for
providing public passenger road transport from 1957 to 1978.
Fares were heavily subsidized, but overcrowding was severe. In
1978 private buses were again allowed to operate, and the Sri
Lanka Transport Board and nine regional transport boards replaced
the Ceylon Transport Board. The Sri Lanka Transport Board had
responsibility for overall transport policy, budgeting, and
production planning, whereas the regional boards were responsible
for the operation of regular regional and interregional bus
services. In 1986 the revenue-cost ratio of the regional boards
was 89 percent. Private road transport expanded rapidly in the
late 1970s and early 1980s, but as in the state sector, there was
some contraction in the mid-1980s as a result of the declining
security in the northern and eastern parts of the country. In
1986 the private sector accounted for about half of the
passenger-kilometers. Many buses in both the state and private
sectors were in poor condition.
The island's first railroad line, from Colombo to Kandy, was
opened in 1867, and in the 1980s Sri Lanka Railways had 1,944
kilometers of railroad track. In early 1988, service in Northern
and Eastern provinces had been irregular for several years. The
network's passenger-kilometers amounted to 1.9 billion in 1986,
about 38 percent less than its total in 1982. Freight services,
on the other hand, remained fairly steady in the mid-1980s. The
railroads have been operated at a loss since independence.
Three ports can accommodate deep water vessels: Colombo,
Trincomalee, and Galle. Colombo was by far the most important. In
1985 it handled nearly 3 million tons of cargo compared with
about 600,000 jointly handled by the other two ports. In 1986 the
Ceylon Petroleum Corporation began a project to build a
single-point buoy mooring 9.6 kilometers offshore from Colombo
port. When completed, this project will greatly reduce the costs
of discharging crude oil to the refinery near Colombo.
In 1971 Sri Lanka launched its own merchant fleet. The
state-owned Sri Lanka Shipping Corporation purchased its first
vessel, a 14,000-ton freighter, in March 1971. By 1981 the
corporation owned eight ships, including a 20,000 deadweight ton
tanker. In 1987 the firm began to replace its aging fleet.
Colombo is a stopping place on international air routes
between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The first stage of a
redevelopment plan for the Bandaranaike International Airport at
Katunayaka was completed in October 1986 with the opening of a
new runway, built at a cost of Rs517 million. Some foreign
airlines reduced or suspended services in the mid-1980s because
of declining traffic due to the security situation.
Air Lanka, the nation's flag carrier, was established in
1980, and in early 1988 it connected Sri Lanka with Europe, the
Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia. It was 60 percent
government owned. In 1987 a presidential commission set up to
inquire into the airline's financial affairs accused former
members of the airline's board of subordinating the company's
development to their private gain. Taking into account the
realizable value of its assets and other costs associated with a
forced sale, estimated cumulative losses up to the end of the
fiscal year 1986 were Rs7.7 billion, or about Rs1.3 billion for
each year of operation. In early 1988, a foreign airline was
reportedly being sought to manage Air Lanka and turn it into a
viable enterprise.
Data as of October 1988
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