China-funded highway extension to open in Sri Lanka

A 180-million U.S. dollar extension to Sri Lanka's first highway, funded by China, will be opened at the end of January, an official said here on Tuesday.

The four-lane 35-kilometer extension of Sri Lanka's first-ever expressway was constructed at a cost of 180 million U.S. dollars with funds from EXIM Bank of China.

The extension will have two interchanges at Wathawana area in Galle, Deniyaya Road and in Kokmaduwa along the Weligama Kananke Road.

According to the Secretary to the Ministry of Highways, Ports and Shipping Ranjith Premasiri, the expressway will be extended further from Matara to Hambantota.

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

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

A 272 million U.S. dollar Chinese funded southern railway project began construction in October. It will run parallel to the southern highway.

Since Sri Lanka ended a 30-year war in 2009, China emerged at the island's largest loan provider with 1.2 billion U.S. dollars of 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 northwestern 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.