Sri Lanka wants speedy completion of Chinese funded highway

Sri Lanka's president has toured a Chinese funded highway in the southern part of the country and urged for its speedy completion, President's Office said in a statement on Wednesday.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday made an observation tour to inspect the progress on the extension of Southern Expressway from southern city of Galle to Matara.

Observing the ongoing work on the expressway, the president walked in between the three exchanges on the highway and also interacted with the people along the road.

"President Rajapaksa instructed the officials to accelerate the construction and complete the highway within the first half of next year to open for public use. The president also instructed the officials to address the issues of the public who have been inconvenienced by the construction," the statement added.

The second phase of Southern Expressway is expected to be completed in January 2014 and will cost 25 billion rupees (about 192 million U.S. dollars).

President Mahinda Rajapaksa will declare open the second phase of the expressway from the southern city of Galle to Matara on 26 January 2014, Minister of Youth Affairs and Skills Development Dullas Alahapperuma had earlier announced

According to the minister, 90 percent of the construction work on highway has been completed by now and work is in progress to complete the two entry points.

The four-lane highway will have two interchanges along the 35 km distance between Galle and Matara.

The funding is provided by the EXIM Bank of China.

According to officials, plans are afoot to further extend the expressway from Matara-Godagama to link a Chinese funded harbor and international airport and feasibility studies for the proposed extension have already been completed.

The first phase of the southern highway was completed in November 2011 at a cost of 700 million U.S. dollars and was also partly funded by the Chinese government.

Construction has also begun on a 272 million U.S. dollar Chinese funded southern railway project that will run parallel to the southern highway.

Since Sri Lanka ended a 30 year war in 2009 China emerged as the island's largest loan provider with 1.2 billion U.S. dollars in loans in 2009 and 821 million U.S. dollars in 2010.

In 2011 the amount fell to 784.7 million U.S. dollars but China remains involved in almost all the large scale projects taking place, according to the finance ministry.

Some of the biggest projects include a 1.3 billion U.S. dollar coal power plant on the north western shore as well as a host of other investments in the south of the country that are estimated to exceed 4 billion U.S. dollars, including a 1.2 billion dollar harbor.