Saudi aid for road construction in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 January 2003, 23:30 GMT]
A three member expert team of Saudi Development Fund arrived Trincomalee Wednesday accompanied by Minister and the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Mr.Rauff Hakim and conducted a feasibility study for the proposed construction of a four hundred meter long bridge over the Trincomalee-Kinniya lagoon at a cost of around five hundred million rupees, Port ministry sources said.

The Saudi expert team comprised Engineer Mohamed Al-Ariff (Director-Asia Project), Engineer Mohamed S.Al-Gofili (Electrical Engineer) and an Economist Mr.Abdulla Al-Shedokki, sources said.

The main purpose of the construction of this bridge is to re-open the Trincomalee-Batticaloa highway through Kinniya, which had been abandoned for more than three decades, sources said.

Saudi development Fund has promised Minister Rauff Hakim that it would allocate 1700 million rupees to rehabilitate Trincomalee-Batticaloa road, Kinniya Tampalakamam road and Kuchchaveli-Pulmoddai road by constructing bridges, RDA sources said. As a first step Saudi Development Fund has agreed to allocate five hundred millions to construct a bridge linking Kinniya with mainland Trincomalee

Saudi Development Foundation team members discuss about the construction of the bridge with Minister Rauff Hakimand parliamentarians M.A.M.Maharoof and M.S.Thowfeek while going to Kinniya by mechanised ferry

One of the four parliamentarians of the Trincomalee district Mr.M.A.M.Maharoof and a national list parliamentarian Mr.M.S.Thowfeek, also accompanied the Saudi team, sources said.

Kinniya town in the Trincomalee district has a population of more than eighty thousand but it is not linked by road with the mainland Trincomalee. Only mechanized ferry service is being conducted between Kinniya and Trincomalee. Several attempts were made in past to construct a bridge over the Kinniya lagoon but all proved futile, RDA sources said. Kinniya town is about eleven km off south west of Trincomalee town.

The Trincomalee-Batticaloa road, which is called as A-15 highway, is not in use at present as it is in a state of disrepair. Three bridges are to be constructed to re-open the A 15 highway for vehicular traffic. One of the three bridges should be constructed to link Kinniya with mainland Trincomalee by road, sources said.