No show by railway employees

15 February 2011 11:53 am Views - 5302

Railway employees will not take part in the official opening of the Galle-Matara railway line which will take place tomorrow since the Government had chosen to contract with Indian company as opposed to local railway employees to build the tracks.

All Ceylon Railway Employees General Union, General Secretary, Sumathipala Manawadu said that there are inefficiencies in the railways department but said that it is partly due to the lack of trust and reliance the authorities have in the work of local railway department workers and engineers.

“After the Tsunami in 2004 we worked collectively to rebuild the broken tracks. We worked hard and were committed in our efforts to rebuild the tracks, but now they have forgotten this,” Manawadu said.

He said that if the necessary raw materials and technology is provided, railway employees could finish the track within a shorter duration and at a lower cost than the Indians that have been hired for the task.

“Foreign stakeholders such as the India charge some Rs.650 million to construct one kilometer of the railway track. We on the other hand informed the authorities that we could do the job for Rs.450 for each kilometer,” he said.

He said railway employees could have easily been hired as opposed to a foreign party and that if there was a shortage of human resources, the Government could have made the initiative to hire local youth that are there in the thousands and are in need of jobs.

“The authorities are wasting tax payers’ money through such projects without utilizing the local resources that are readily available. We will not be attending the railway opening because of this,” he said. The development of the Galle-Matara railway line is the first stage of the Colombo-Matara railway project. (Olindhi Jayasundere)