The Department of Railways is releasing 10,000 rails imported from China from Colombo port, beginning a track renewal programme on the Coastal Line that has cost close to Rs. 2 billion, NewsFirst reported on Friday.
Roughly half the consignment — about 5,000 rails — will go to sections of the Coastal Line where speed restrictions are currently in force. The department plans to replace existing track at around 50 locations between Colombo Fort and Panadura, and said it is also moving to begin construction and renovation work on railway bridges along the route. The work is expected to take about six months.
The department expects the programme to significantly reduce the daily delays that have become routine on the Coastal Line, one of the country’s busiest commuter corridors.
The shipment has arrived considerably later than planned. When Sri Lanka Railways announced the order in May, it said the rails were scheduled to arrive in June 2026 and that about 70 per cent of the Coastal Line’s speed restrictions would be lifted by December 2026. The consignment is only now clearing port, roughly two months behind that schedule, and a six-month works programme starting at the end of August would run to around February 2027 — past the December date the department originally gave. Neither the department nor NewsFirst addressed the revised timeline.
The Rs. 2 billion cost was not disclosed in the May announcement and appears here for the first time.
Track deterioration on the corridor has had operational consequences: rail degradation was implicated in the April derailment of the Ruhunu Kumari express near Wadduwa.
No other verified newsroom had reported the shipment’s arrival at the time of writing.
