ADB financing for rural road connectivity programme in Sri Lanka

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Sri Lanka on Wednesday signed a US$150 million Tranche 2 Loan Agreement for the Second Integrated Road Investment Programme, continuing ADB’s assistance to upgrade Sri Lanka’s rural road network and thereby connecting vast rural populations to jobs and services.

R.H.S. Samaratunga, Secretary to the Treasury, Ministry of Finance, signed the Loan Agreement for the Government while Ms. Manjula Amerasinghe, Officer-in-Charge, ADB Sri Lanka Resident Mission signed on behalf of the ADB. A Project Agreement was also signed between ADB and Nihal Sooriyarachchi, Chairman, Road Development Authority, the project’s implementing agency, according to an ADB media release.

Under the Second Integrated Road Investment Programme, which was approved by ADB’s Board of Directors in September 2017, about 3,400 km of rural access roads and 340 km of national roads in the Eastern, Northern, and Uva provinces as well as, a part of the Western province will be rehabilitated/improved. The programme will also improve the capacity of the country’s road agencies for road safety, maintenance, research, design, and construction.

The programme, which is due for completion in 2027, will deliver finance in five tranches to 2021. This is the second of such tranches. The government will meet $21.80 million of the second tranche programme cost.

The release said that the ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. In 2018, it made commitments of new loans and grants amounting to $21.6 billion. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.