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by Arosha Fernando

Sri Lanka, the pearl of the Indian ocean, is one of the nations struggling to come up with a good economy in the third world. The new Government is giving the citizens the sigh of relief with hopes for a better tomorrow. The peace negotiations to end the never ending war is mundane at this critical hour for the nation to rise up from the ashes of the war-torn Sri Lanka.

Newly established - Infrastructure Development Alliances Australia Ltd aims to give service to the motherland with the fervent hope of developing the infrastructures by introducing modern technology or by rehabilitating the existing services with the latest developments available. We thought of taking up the most essential service to the island - the Railway Transport amongst other infrastructures to improve their efficiency.

The island saw the first train running the 34 miles from Colombo to Ambepussa on 27th December 1864. For this to achieve it has been planned from 1842 and the "Ceylon Railway Company" was formed in the year 1845 to build the first railway line in Ceylon. From the early days of the British occupation, Europeans were looking for suitable investments.

They were attracted by the mild climate and the rich soil that was found in the up-country region of the island. Soon coffee plantations were making rapid progress with the hub of the supply was Colombo, which was over 70 miles away from the production region. But the lack of proper transport to bring down the produce mooted the planters to agitate for the construction of a railway line to Kandy from Colombo.

The Government then reacted favourably as a railway was likely to be an important asset in the development of the plantations and the unification of the country. By the time we got independence in 1948, railway was a well established Government Department - Ceylon Government Railways (CGR), but it was in a relatively static state of affairs.

In common with many other countries in that era that changed their status from that of colonies to independent statehood, the newly formed Government with the Ceylonese nationals and with the backing of the people as a whole commenced to plan and embark on broad-based and far-reaching schemes of economic development.

With the formation of a series of Government sponsored Corporations for the production of cement, sugar, paper, textiles, ceramics, fertiliser, leather goods, plywood, hardboard and many other commodities have been established throughout the island.

These have developed fresh types of rail traffic to transport heavy industrial machinery and raw materials in bulk. Similarly the finished products has to be moved either for local distribution or for shipment in Colombo Port.

It is true to say that the CGR has played a most important part in the economic development of the island throughout the years gone by and particularly in the post independence period. In connection with the project like Laxapana Hydro Electric scheme. Galoya Valley Development scheme, Cement Factory project in Kankesanthurai, CGR rendered a yeoman service second to none to the building of our national economy.

The recent large scale economic innovation of the island was Mahaveli Development scheme - to build the Victoria dam, etc. Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) with its fleet of heavy duty wagons, crocodile wagons, well wagons, bogie rail wagons and bogie low sides has been the only transport organisation in Sri Lanka adequately equipped to carry heavy, out-sized plant and machinery which were needed for that development project.

The war has swallowed the economic development of the island in the last two decades. Due to that the Government funding for the improvement of the SLR has been retarded. In 1964 at the turn of the century with the introduction of the colour lights signal system to operate the sub-urban traffic, CGR became the best in the East to have a modernised signalling scheme.

Then the Railway Mechanical workshops were the best in the East with well-equipped maintenance shops to maintain the fleet of locomotives, passenger coaches, freight carriages, tank wagons, etc. Just before the ethnic war started SLR floated the islandwide radio-communication project and it was abandoned in 1983. Later on it was completed.

Today SLR is having an almost defunct Communication Network without spare parts to maintain it or to improve it to suit the present day modern Railway Management tool of transmitting data all over the railway network. Today SLR is having a legacy of years of under-investment as they lack funds.

The essential funds that SLR require to maintain its infrastructures in good order, the Treasury has not approved year after year due to the shortage of funds even to run the other affairs of the country. We are proud to bring solutions and options for the attention of the Ministry of Transport to solve this grave problem and to uplift this giant which was the blood line of the island's economy in the past to rejuvenate the economy of the island.

We proposed to the internationally reputed companies in Australia to provide us assistance in maintenance of the rollingstock, signalling and communications, infrastructure and passenger facilities which are not good as it should be to update them under the Australian Aid Schemes, and Government approved loan funds from EFIC the finance arm of the Australian Government.

This aid schemes and loan funds have been used in the past by various Government Departments, Corporations and Boards to carry out their projects successfully. As a policy of the new Government they have abandoned to release funds to any projects, unless the ministry in-charge prove that it is essential as a priority and will have immediate benefits to the island. Even then the Government is not having funds to release.

This is where the Australian Government's Aid Schemes and EFIC of Australia will be able to help our up and coming nation to build the economy by improving the infrastructures of the island, particularly to update the Railway Transport network, to run it as a viable Public Transport network which have the railway lines stretching all over the island.

Other option is the privatisation of the railway transport, it could be categorically stated that it is a public/private partnership. In this the Government need not sell off in entirety to the private sector, as they could be franchised. The nature of franchise places certain obligations on the private operators, as well as limits on their freedoms. It also preserves a very important role for the government as the regulator, partner and strategic planner.

In this we believe that the private sector could achieve what the Government could not. The experience in Victoria State, Australia and many parts of Asia show that franchising would guarantee better performance and service at lower cost, bringing with it a long overdue multi-million boost to the SLR. The improvements envisaged could be financed without increasing the fare structures for the socio economic reasons. The train fares will remain as they are and the finance loans could be paid back from the profits earned by giving a better, safe and punctual service than now.

Infrastructure Development Alliances Australia Ltd maintains a network of local and foreign companies who are willing to enter into partnership for infrastructure development and it aims to find the best partner for each opportunity within its extensive network. Infrastructure Development Alliances Australia Ltd's vision is to be the partner of choice in infrastructure projects for the economic and social development of Sri Lanka.

This will be achieved through bringing in foreign technology and foreign aids, and facilitating the partnership between the local and foreign companies.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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