Sri Lanka Railways Forum

Trains to use bio-diesel by 2010

The Sri Lanka Railways will use bio-diesel to run trains by 2010 to curtail the drain on foreign exchange to import petroleum products, Transport Minister Dulles Alahapperuma said today.

July 10th Strike will not hamper rail services

The Sri Lanka Freedom Railway Employees’ Union is of the view that the strike planned by the JVP and UNP trade unions. A statement signed by representatives of 12 trade unions, including the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Railway Employees Union Nadeera Manoj claimed that the strike planned under such circumstances is treacherous. The Joint Trade Union for the building of railways assured that train services will not be interrupted due to the strike.

Source: DailyMirror, ITN

The damage caused by the Rajarata Rajina train derailment at Hikkaduwa last Monday exceeds Rs. 100 million, said GM Railways Department Dr. Lalithasiri Gunaruwan. Three commuters died on the spot and a large number of commuters were injured in the accident.

The GMR said that a committee was appointed last Tuesday to look into the accident. He said that the four-member committee of inquiry will reveal the cause for the derailment.

In the meantime an interim report by the District Transport Inspector was submitted to the committee of inquiry.

Source: Sunday observer

General Manager, Sri Lanka Railways, Dr. Lalithsiri Gunaruwan and one of his subordinates, the Chief Engineer of Ways and Works, A.G. Mahanama, have been exposed in an ill-begotten attempt to manipulate a tender for new railway locomotives that runs into tens of millions of dollars.

Since The Sunday Leader wrote about some of the issues faced by the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) in an article on May 25, the TEC has, in an interim report, rejected five of the seven bids it received, thus narrowing the race down to one between two ‘horses.’

With the rejection of the four bids from Chinese companies and one bid from a North American firm, only the bids of former General Motors subsidiary, Electromotive Diesel (EMD) and RITES India, remain to be evaluated.

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Train operations on the coastal railway line were back to normal from yesterday with railway authorities managing to renovate the damage caused by the derailment on the Thotagamuwa bridge within two days.

According to the Transport Ministry, operations beyond Ambalangoda which were suspended after the fatal derailment, resumed last morning, following a test run over the repaired track and bridge Wednesday evening.

“As a result of the swift renovation, we were able to operate the Colombo bound office trains from Matara and Galle yesterday after two days, though with certain delays.

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The new fleet of 100 train carriages which arrived from China and the new power sets to be imported in September will strengthen the railway services and enhance the quality of travel by train, General Manager Dr. Lalithasiri Gunaruwan said at a press conference recently.

The train service would be improved especially in the Kelani Valley line and the Intercity Service from October this year. Each power set cost Rs.350 million he said.

It was problematic when new technology was introduced as there would be teething problems with the new carriages and new power sets, but we will introduce the S5 power sets to the Kelani Valley line to improve the service he said.

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Over the past 30 to 40 years Sri Lanka’s railway system has been deprived of sufficient investment, Sri Lanka Railways General Manager Dr. T.L Gunaruwan stated yesterday.

Addressing the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2008 Dr. Gunaruwan further stated that although the Department received hundreds of billions of Rupees in the 1970s to develop its network, in the last two to three decades only Rs.30 billion has been allocated for such activities. “The challenge at present is not the availability of investment but how to use the capital productively. The answer is not to restructure the railways but to restructure the entire industry,” he claimed.

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