Sri Lanka’s expressways generated more than Rs. 124 million over two days as holiday travel surged, the Ministry of Transport and Highways said.
A total of 325,316 vehicles used the network during the period. The Southern Expressway carried the heaviest traffic and brought in approximately Rs. 76.7 million, followed by the Colombo–Katunayake Expressway at around Rs. 34.8 million and the Central Expressway at approximately Rs. 12.9 million.
The ministry attributed the increase to the long weekend holiday. Nikini Full Moon Poya Day fell on Thursday, 27 August, a public holiday landing at the end of the working week and opening an extended break. The Kandy Esala Perahera also concluded this week with its traditional water-cutting ceremony, drawing large crowds to the hill capital along a corridor served by the Central Expressway.
The two-day haul is heavy by recent standards. Over the four-day Avurudu peak from 10 to 13 April, the expressway network took Rs. 196 million from about 520,000 vehicles — an average of roughly Rs. 49 million and 130,000 vehicles a day. The past two days averaged about Rs. 62 million and 162,600 vehicles a day, a materially higher daily rate than the New Year rush.
That comparison is, if anything, conservative. The April figures covered all operational expressway corridors, while the three roads named in Friday’s report account for the full Rs. 124.4 million total between them, indicating the Outer Circular Highway was either excluded or not broken out. The ministry did not specify which two days the figures cover, and did not publish a corridor-by-corridor vehicle count.
No other verified newsroom had reported the figures at the time of writing.
