Anuradhapura to become economic nerve centre: Bandula

By B.G.Chaturanga   

Minister of Transport, Highways and Mass Media Bandula Gunawardana  said Anuradhapura town would be developed as a nerve centre of the economy,  for which President Ranil Wickremesinghe had allocated Rs.200 million in  the current budget.   

Addressing the ceremony to inaugurate the train service  from Anuradhapura to Mihintale he said consignments of goods imported to  the country would be transported from Colombo to the warehouse  complexes in Anuradhapura and Mihintale areas and forwarded to the ten  districts in the Northern, North Central and the Eastern Provinces.   

The train service was inaugurated on the advice of Chief  Incumbent of Anuradhapura Atamastana Ven. Pallegama Hemerathana Thera.     

“Anuradhapura town had been the centre of the historic  Anuradhapura kingdom and under the proposed project it would be a nerve  centre of the economy. It will be an exchange of agricultural products as  well. Northern Railway is now being improved under a project funded by  an Indian loan scheme to operate trains at a speed of 100km per hour.  After completing the project, the time taken for a journey by train from  Jaffna to Colombo would be reduced to five and a half hours,” the minister  said.   

He further said the proposed project to construct a 60 km  railway line from Mihintale to Trincomalee would be inaugurated soon and  that he had already issued instructions to the engineers.   

The minister and several senior officials joined the inaugural journey by train from Anuradhapura to Mihintale.   

State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe and several  senior officials of the Transport and Highways Ministry and the  Department of Railways were present at the occasion.