Tunnel report in cold storage

The diagrams showing the proposed new tunnel

The move to save the manually built 172 year old historic Halloluwa Tunnel by building another tunnel adjacent to it is said to be confined to a report which is gathering dust somewhere at the Kandy Municipal Council. Though this report had been forwarded around 2000, the Kandy Municipal Council has kept it mothballed while the Halloluwa Tunnel is left to the mercy of water from above and earthslips during heavy rains.

The Halloluwa tunnel

A study was made of the tunnel by a Peradeniya University geological department lecturer Udeni Amarasinghe. According to the lecturer’s report the tunnel is 129 metres in length and was manually dug as far back as 1828 on the directions of Sir Edward Barnes, the then British Governor.

The report has said that during the first quarter of the twentieth century, the tunnel went out of use and was filled with mud and earth from landslides. Around 1950, the Kandy Municipal Engineer C.I.Fonseka prepared a plan to bring back the tunnel to its former glory.

According to the Amerasinghe report, water has been seeping from above through the fissures caused by the vibrations of heavy motor vehicles.

It is only after this report that the Kandy Municipality decided to erect barriers preventing the movement of large vehicles. It was also on a suggestion of Mr. Amerasinghe that drains have been built so as to flush out the water seeping from above.

In his report to the Kandy Municipal Council, Mr. Amerasinghe had suggested that the unauthorized houses above the tunnel be removed.

The only positive thing that has come out of the report has been the installation of two barricades at either end preventing any heavy traffic through the tunnel.