The Sri Lanka Railways Station Masters’ Union has called for an urgent investigation into the recent spate of locomotive engine breakdowns, and says the department’s General Manager should be among those examined.
SLRSMU General Secretary Kasun Chamara told reporters that a properly conducted inquiry would establish where responsibility for the failures lies, and alleged that the General Manager was responsible for the current situation.
Chamara said the GM lacked an adequate grasp of the operational and technical problems facing the Railways Department, including the specific faults reported in several locomotives. He also alleged that tender procedures run by the department had been halted.
“The tender procedures conducted by the department were stopped due to the inability of the GM,” Chamara said.
The dispute has already turned personal. Chamara showed journalists a letter he said the General Manager had sent him, threatening legal action over statements he had made to the media — an unusual escalation between a department head and a recognised trade union office-bearer.
The union has asked the government to appoint a new General Manager with what it called adequate knowledge and experience in administering the department, and to commission a comprehensive and independent investigation into the breakdowns, with action to follow from its findings.
Station masters occupy an unusual vantage point in the dispute: they are the grade that logs delays and cancellations in real time, which gives the union a documentary record of the failures it is complaining about.
The Daily Mirror did not carry a response from the General Manager or the Transport Ministry, and did not report how many locomotives have failed or over what period. As of Tuesday evening, no other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own report of the union’s allegations.
