A new bridge connecting the villages of Godaulpotha and Himbiliyakada in Wilgamuwa, Matale, is to be declared open to the public on Saturday under the Gammadda initiative, NewsFirst reported.
The crossing spans the Atambe Ela stream, which villagers have had to ford for generations. NewsFirst described the crossing as a source of immense hardship for residents of both communities.
Identified during a 2023 door-to-door survey
Gammadda first identified the need for a bridge linking the two villages during its door-to-door initiative in 2023, when campaign teams canvassed rural communities to record infrastructure gaps directly from residents.
The foundation stone for the structure was laid recently, with contributions from Speedmark Transportation Lanka.
Part of a wider rural programme
Gammadda is a long-running village development campaign that mobilises volunteers, local officials and corporate donors to restore roads, bridges, water supplies and public buildings in rural areas. According to the campaign’s own account, its survey teams are drawn from News 1st volunteers and University of Peradeniya undergraduates, who spend months going house to house in rural areas recording what residents say they need.
The campaign has been active in Matale district through 2026. Its Re-Build programme, which focuses on infrastructure damaged by Cyclone Ditwah and subsequent flooding, entered a second day in the district in July. Earlier phases of that rebuild effort ran in Kandy, Badulla and Nuwara Eliya.
Wilgamuwa is a divisional secretariat area in eastern Matale whose villages have featured in reporting on human-elephant conflict, including an attack that killed a father and daughter at Moragaha Ulpatha in May.
NewsFirst, which runs the Gammadda campaign, was the only newsroom reporting the opening at the time of writing.
