Minister of Transport and Highways, Dr. Bandula Gunawardena made an inspection tour to the work site of the Ratmalana Main Mechanical Engineering Factory of the Department of Railways recently.
After assuming duties as the Minister of Transport and Highways, Dr.Gunawardena has been committed to strengthen the public transport service as a solution to the fuel issue.
The Railway Department and the Sri Lanka Transport Board are conducting discussions daily with the Ministry Secretary and officials to provide a more effective transport service to the people and evaluate its progress. During the past few weekends, Minister Gunawardena went to Polonnaruwa, Badulla, Jaffna and looked into the deficiencies in the trains, railway tracks and railway stations. The Minister also visited the depots belonging to the Sri Lanka Transport Board and discussed with the officials regarding their shortcomings.
Minister Gunawardena, recently visited the Ratmalana Mechanical Engineering Factory of the Railway Department and met its officials and employees and inspected its work.
The Ratmalana factory has been entrusted with the procurement of locomotives, wagons and carriages for running in the country and make them suitable for running and the preparation of mechanical and electrical components for them.
At present, 142 locomotives including 129 power sets and 1,400 carriages are maintained in this workshop. It was revealed that about 200 carriages have been taken out of service and they will have to be fully renovated to bring them back to operation.
There are 2280 staff consisting of 32 workplaces and 24 engineers. In addition this work site also consists of an area of 650 quarters adjacent to it.
It was also revealed that the transportation of fuel required for airplanes to the airport is entirely done by train and nearly 50 percent of the country’s other fuel requirements are done by train.
Minister Gunawardena, instructed officials to make arrangements to provide transportation facilities for foreign tourists from Katunayake Airport to Colombo Fort by train. He said that he will soon discuss with the Minister of Aviation and relevant officials to further extend the railway line that transports fuel to Katunayake Airport and provide facilities for that purpose at the airport.
He instructed the officials of the Railway Department to use a luxury train for this purpose and to build a rest room equipped with all the facilities for foreign tourists at the Fort Railway Station.
The Minister stressed out the need to reduce the transportation costs of those who come to Sri Lanka after working abroad by providing them facilities by train to return to their homes.
Instructions were also given to start a luxury train service from Colombo Fort to Vaga for local tourists on weekends and to run a luxury train from Colombo Fort to Anuradhapura for local devotees on Poya days.
The Minister also instructed to commence a special bus service together with the Sri Lanka Transport Board, Anuradhapura for the benefit of those devotees to worship the Atamasthana. The Minister also pointed out that various irregularities and inconveniences caused by the passengers can be minimized by adopting necessary procedures to get the train tickets via Online.
Dr. Gunawardena said over the past few weekends, he traveled to various places by train and noticed some deficiencies in the cleanliness of the railway carriages. The Minister stressed the importance of keeping the railway carriages clean and attractive to the passengers.
Chief Engineer of the work-site K.K. Hewawitharana said although there should be 3,680 staff, currently there are only 2,280 employees so that they will have to face some difficulties.
He said although there was a system to recruit students who are trained at the Ratmalana German Tech Institute to the Railway Department, the recruitment activities have been suspended for the past few years.
The Minister instructed the Secretary Ministry of Transport and Highways R. W. R. Pemasiri to inform the Cabinet and submit a Cabinet paper to recruit those students to the railway department who are studying at the Ratmalana railway workshop at the expense of the Department under its consultants.
A group of officials including the General Manager of Railways was also present.