2 January 2019 12:00 am Views - 1471
This writer recalls with nostalgia a train trip with the younger brother (Daya) and a friend (Samarasekara of Kirama) travelling from Matara to Kamurugamuwa,to get the feel of the southern railway journey, on the very day of independence in 1948, as teenage schoolboys. Returning from Kamburugamuwa, I remember how we felt ending the trip at Matara railway station, unable to proceed beyond, that by train, to reach to Dickwella, where we were boarded as school going kids. It is sad fact indeed for people living in this part of Sri Lanka, had to wait so long, 70 years after independence, and of course 100 years after the railways were first introduced to this country, for this railway extension beyond Matara. The British colonial Government that built railways in Sri Lanka then, except for the northern line, primarily to serve their tea and rubber plantations industries rather than for the country’s socio economic development, which came in only as a fringe benefit. Not extending the railway beyond Matara by the British might have been due to two reasons, no British owned plantations in the deep south and there was the history of the Wellassa rebellion to reckon with. In policy making during the post independent period the local political leaders mostly being Colombo based were more interested in developing the hinterland of Colombo for trade and industry, rather than remote regions like Hambantota or Monaragala district. Hence this region remained relatively neglected for nearly 100 years or more, resulting in high unemployment, poverty and all other other ills of economic deprivations and progress. Whatever that came into this region in the past as development was grossly inadequate to improve people’s living standards and even to match the potential of the region for development and people’s aspiration for progress. The more enterprising persons migrated from their native villages in the region, to the Port City Colombo and other towns, thereby creating a void in the southern region of entrepreneurial talents and native skills. It is a fact in economic history that what was lost in talent migration out of the deep south in Sri Lanka, the Colombo district gained. Had the railway line been extended beyond Matara and port developed in Hambantota in time, after independence in 1948, perhaps our country’s developments would have been more rapid and more balanced than what we see now.
This is because Hambantota lies close to one of the biggest trade routes in the world, the east/ west main trade flow in the Indian ocean. This writer having spent some years in Malaysia and Singapore had the impression that what we lost Singapore gained and even Dubai today.
Lack of visionary political leadership in the past had cost our country immensely in this respect. However the advent of a strong and visionary leadership with the election of Mahinda Rajapaksa as president in 2005 had finally brought the change much urged by the Southern communities over the years. The construction of the Hambantota new harbour and the railway extension to it, is a major project, capable of lifting this region to higher economic status through trade and industry development, that would facilitate a host of significant activities for the people living there. This would indeed spell a new phase of development in the region as well as other adjacent areas, perhaps changing the pattern of development in the country’s economy. Mahinda Rajapaksa coming from the remote Giruwapattuwa himself, in the deep south, appeared to have correctly identified a strategic variable to a vast development potential that, had remained untapped all these years. Hambantota being so close to, one the busiest shipping routes in the world, namely the east west trade flow across Indian ocean, remained untapped and post independent planners and the political leaders had failed to size the prospects a new port in Hambantota, and unwilling to move from the position of a saturated single port city of Colombo, what the British built to serve their plantation economy. As a result of their short sighted policies in the past, we face a host of issues related to rising costs related to overcrowding, traffic congestion, land prices, most of which can be rated as uneconomic levels for business, particularly for start-ups of the locals. The lost opportunities could be immense. What Sri Lanka lost over the years, because of this stupid Colombo biased strategy, Singapore and Dubai gained, while we are too slow in changing and moving a head from the colonised mind set for development,
Initially the southern railway extension would attract passenger traffic, particularly the pilgrims going to Kataragama and tourists going to beach hotels in the South. Gradually the expected trade and industry growth in and around rail road stations, beyond Matara up to Hambantota, would bring about a shift of population and settlement pattern in the region. The prospective growth relating to the new port in Hambantota, for large scale industries and logistical services that would spin off, can push the whole region to a new growth trajectory. There is enough evidence to show positives in this direction. The presence of entrepreneurship and business skills are there in the people living there, the steady growth of urban centres like Embilipitiya, from a sleepy township, testifies this prospects. For generations out migration from the south due to relative neglect of these areas, had really benefitted Colombo and other areas by the southern talent pool. This is a fact in the economic history of our country, arising out of single port, related commerce and administrative polarity, Colombo based, of development process. This imbalanced structure should change for sound economic reasons such as rising costs of land and space, overcrowding settlements, and traffic congestion and sheer waste of energy involved, with high import costs, and most of this being related to the issue of saturation of Colombo based potential. The extension of the railway beyond Matara to connect with the new harbour in Hambantota can change this and enable the country to enter new vista of development and growth. However, one caveat this writer would like to pinpoint is the one related to environment management. Proper conservation backed environment for this region is urged, mostly because of long periods of undisturbed ecology and natural built up, of nature showing sometimes superb blending of charm and beauty of immense value. This certainly has prospective long term values to the nation.