Much has been said about Sri Lanka’s potential for growth, and indeed there are many national and corporate plans being rolled out towards this end. There is high focus on several key areas of improvement, such as Infrastructure, policy frameworks, citizen services, education and so on.
But there is also another interesting factor which surrounds us citizens in many aspects within our country, and although sometimes easily addressable, does not receive the due attention needed. I am referring to bottlenecks, and I know this is not a topic which usually gets too much media or policy attention. But this topic has had me fascinated for a while, which is why I thought it is timely to elaborate on a few examples from a cross section of real life situations.

Time factor
I regularly pass the Zoo in my hometown, and every weekend, the ticket queues stretch miles long, and require kids, infants and parents to pass through the exact same tiny ticket entry booth, which existed when I was a kid. This process can easily take over a half hour for each visitor, just to gain entry.
At weddings and corporate functions, it is very common to see long queues of guests having to wait patiently and follow an Oliver Twist routine to reach the food area. The traffic on Marine Drive or on Duplication road flows wonderfully, until one has to cross the bridges over the Bambalapitiya Canal, where both bridges have only been built with single lanes.

Recently a very large group of Christian faithful spent a weekend at a remote shrine in prayer etc, where most things had been great except for the fact that the food took well over an hour just to get to.

The notion of making Sri Jayawardenapura our capital seems to have ignored the fact that it only had a single major access road to Colombo, and so it gradually became one of the worst access roads to the city and I am sure any reader could come up with a dozen instances where things take way more time than they should.
Of course we also see errant Parking in abundance, the “semi Parked” Private Buses which block an entire lane of traffic, and with the emergence of newer Reception Halls sans any parking, crowded roadside parking each time these locations have a function.

Mindset
In Sri Lanka, we do not seem to have a mindset of noticing or worrying about these bottlenecks. We seem to be happy to take them on the run, blame the government, call it fate, or joke about it being the situation in Sri Lanka, and do nothing about it. The economic value of Time lost in each of these instances is extremely significant, and the irony is that many of them are easily addressable - provided the Key people are serious about ensuring there are no such bottlenecks. Let’s again look at simple examples. All that is needed for the Dehiwela Zoo to reduce its queue is to either have a few smaller “Hole in the Wall” windows, which allow people to buy their tickets at multiple locations, so that they can simply pass through that narrow gate faster (or reopen the second old Minmedura entrance).

This is how Amusement parks overseas cater to thousands of daily visitors. At functions, all it requires is a second buffet table but importantly with guests having access on either side of the buffet tables so that each table serves from both sides. Almost always the food is chucked away towards a corner with one side limited for the Catering staff, and the convenience of guests is forgotten.

I was wowed the first time I attended our Company’s Annual gathering which brings together around 15,000 people, where they manage to have a sit down breakfast for thousands within one hour. It entailed simple disciplines such as sending the early incoming traffic all the way to the far back of the hall so that access areas did not get blocked up. The tables closest to the entrances were available only once the inner hall became full. How often does one see the access areas getting congested in Sri Lanka, preventing people from getting in, and coming out, of locations, buses etc.?

I recall reading in the press long ago that the approved budget had been inadequate by the time construction started, so the bridge on Duplication was built with a single lane instead of the planned double lanes. Hopefully it was not that the money went in some other direction!! Widening those two little bridges alone will save hundreds of travel hours each day for Citizens and for the country, and is probably better economic ROI than some other Infrastructure investments.

Common sense approach
Solutions for Bottlenecks can be found through Common Sense approaches, or through Design, or Technology. Bottlenecks are not just Urban in nature. For example, we often see many people and containers lined up against a roadside Tap when travelling across the country, when all that is needed is to install a few added taps on the same water line with a broader T connection pipe. Our local Hopper makers have solved their issue in exactly this manner by installing multiple burner points on a single Gas source from a single Cylinder and this is a great example of a Common Sense approach. Some major overseas entertainment venues are designed with more toilets for Females than Males, as that is another common location, which needs to be accessed by many within a short duration of time. On the Technology front, the world’s leading Super Market Chain monitors their customer queues electronically, and the moment any queue reaches a certain length, a new counter is required to be manned (the monitoring happens in India while the Super Markets are in the USA). Our Immigration queues could be reduced easily with such an approach, even with manual monitoring.

Buying Train or Movie tickets through mobile or on line, making Doctors appointments in a similar manner, obtaining Exam results via the web are among the many simple Technology based examples which already happen in Sri Lanka, and the trend is certainly on the rise. The One way Traffic system, and the redesign of payments and roadside parking space etc are further great examples of progressive work currently ongoing.
As a nation, we need to reduce accepting delays and bottlenecks in the different spheres of our lives, and keep asking ourselves if there is anything which could be done proactively to remove them. When more people keep asking this question, and more Decision makers keep pondering this same issue, addressing Bottlenecks will become second nature to us all, and we would have begun unlocking lots of untapped potential.

(The author is the Country Manager for Microsoft, and is also actively engaged with several Chambers, Charities, Academic and other groups who further Sri Lanka’s development agenda)