Chandrasekera The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will initiate project preparatory technical assistance to assess the railway system in the Colombo Metropolitan Region (CMR), officials said. This is in line with expanding its operations into highways in addition to their conventional investments in highways, water supply and sanitation. “(In terms of expanding into railways, the ADB) [...]

The Sunday Times Sri Lanka

ADB to assess the railway system for re-hauling

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Chandrasekera
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will initiate project preparatory technical assistance to assess the railway system in the Colombo Metropolitan Region (CMR), officials said.

This is in line with expanding its operations into highways in addition to their conventional investments in highways, water supply and sanitation.

“(In terms of expanding into railways, the ADB) will identify and prioritise interventions such as track rehabilitation and modernisation of signalling and telecom systems, possible railway electrification and rolling stock required to increase railway operation and maintenance facilities,” an ADB official told the Business Times on an e-mail interview. She said that pre-feasibility studies would include cost-benefit analysis to decide on the priority interventions in consultation with the Government and define the scope of further projects to be prepared.

According to the ADB official, the lending agency ADB is still at an initial stage of discussion with the government on capital market development. At a media conference held in Colombo this week, Wencai Zhang, ADB Vice President Operations, said the ADB will triple lending to US$1 billion for education.

“In line with the government’s initiative to increase spending on education to 6 per cent of gross domestic product we plan to triple lending for education to $1 billion,” he said.

According to him, this will allow the youth to enter the skilled labour market and in turn help the country to move towards a knowledge-based economy, which is the new government’s vision.

More projects in energy sector, agriculture, urban sector-related projects, investment projects and waste water management projects in the North and East as well as reform programmes are to be backed by the ADB, according to Mr. Zhang.

Educational development will focus on secondary and tertiary education with an emphasis on enhancing research and development in the island’s academic institutions. “We need to link education with enterprise so that this country can diversify and move towards a knowledge-based economy,” Mr. Zhang added. The ADB has worked closely with the government of Sri Lanka, approving a total of 192 loans with cumulative lending amounting to about $6.9 billion. This is in addition to around $358 million in grant assistance and $127.78 million in technical assistance projects.

Mr. Zhang met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and senior officials during his visit to Colombo.

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