Toll on Colombo bound traffic on the cards

The government is in the process of levying a toll from all private vehicles entering Colombo and its suburbs as a solution to the mounting traffic congestion in 2020, a senior source of the Commuter Transport Management Ministry said yesterday.

Vehicles will be charged on their category and debited to a consolidated fund to develop public transport, roads, control environment pollution etc, the source added.

He said the private and SLTB buses and trains would be fully modernised to provide more facilities to commuters and disabled passengers in particular.

“Around 60,000 vehicles including 45,000 light vehicles enter Colombo per day. The amount of vehicles entering Colombo is beyond the capacity of control to a small city like Colombo. A system to manage private and public transport should be implemented on priority. "We envisage that commencing of levying a toll on vehicles entering the city would considerably reduce the congestion".

He noted that the speed limit has come down to eight kilometres an hour in Colombo during the opening and closing time of private and public offices in Colombo and it creates a negative impact on the economy. If proper decisions are not taken to control the heavy congestion in the city, travelling in Colombo would be a nightmare before long.

"Cabinet approval for the project will be sought to shortly,” he noted. (Sandun A Jayasekera)