Katugastota bridge in troubled waters

By Shane Seneviratne.

The slow progress in the construction of the multi-million rupee new bridge across the Mahaweli Ganga at Katugastota is posing a threat to the funding of the project as failure to complete the project in time may force donors to end funding, project sources told the Kandy Times.

Construction going on at a slow pace

The bridge consisting of five lanes for traffic is being built at a cost of Rs. 450 million with funding from Kuwait. The bridge would replace the existing bridge built by the British over a 100 years ago. President Mahinda Rajapaksa who was in Kandy during the Perahera season and held a review meeting of development projects had inquired about the progress of the construction.

During the meeting a Provincial Councillor had raised the issue of the slow progress of the construction and said that only a few men were working at any given time, but an official representing the contractors had said the workers could not be seen as most of them were working underwater. However the President had ordered the work be expedited, but since then no action has been taken to expedite the construction which is reported to be behind schedule.

The bridge should be completed by June next year, but those involved in the project said they were behind schedule. An engineer involved in the project who did not wish to be identified told Kandy Times that only a few employees were engaged in the construction and therefore there were delays.He said there were also some problems in acquiring land while on one occasion excess water had been released from the Kotmale reservoir resulting in all temporary constructions being washed away.