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Colombo-Kilinochchi train services on track after 23 years
After more than 23 years, direct train services between Colombo and Kilinochchi will begin next week with the opening of the newly completed 63-kilometre track between Omanthai and Kilinochchi. President Mahinda Rajapaksa will officially declare open the line on September 14.A group of media personnel who were taken on the newly constructed line, were greeted by enthusiastic residents in Kilinochchi who welcomed the recommencement of the rail service. Many children seeing a train for the first time looked on in bewilderment as the train passed through towns between Omanthai and Kilinochchi where the train operated in 1990 for the last time.
S. Sivalingam, a resident of Kilinochi who lives close to the railway line, welcomed the opening of the railway line. “We are very happy that the railway line is opening, it will be beneficial to us,” he said. It is the economic dividends that come with the opening of the railway line that many welcome. “The cost of travel will come down because of the trains services,” he said.
The reconstructed track is part of the 252-kilometre route being constructed by Icon International Limited, a government company under the Ministry of Railways of India.
The project is funded by the Indian Government under the Indian Line of Credit. The reconstructed railway track is designed with a speed potential of 120 kmph, and is constructed using new technology in which the track is welded together to minimise jolting.
Minister of Transport Kumar Welgama who made the train ride from Anuradhapura to Kilinochchi, said that it was with a great sense of pride and satisfaction that the new line is being opened. “This is one of the main dividends of the end of the war,” he said.
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