Sri Lanka’s expressway network took a record of more than Rs. 355 million during the five-day holiday period last week, Road Development Authority Director General Anuradha Hettiarachchi said.
Across the full week the network earned more than Rs. 408 million, with 1,095,895 vehicles using the Southern Expressway, the Colombo–Katunayake Expressway, the Colombo Outer Circular Highway and the Central Expressway between 24 and 30 August, Ada Derana reported.
The Daily Mirror carried the same weekly figures — the Rs. 408 million take and the identical vehicle count and date range — attributing them to the RDA, but did not report the five-day holiday record.
What the figures imply
Neither account identified which five days made up the holiday period, and that omission carries most of the story. The week averaged about Rs. 372 per vehicle. If the holiday run is the Rs. 355 million core of a Rs. 408 million week, the remaining two days of the week produced roughly Rs. 53 million between them — under Rs. 27 million a day against about Rs. 71 million a day across the holiday.
The most likely reading places the holiday window at 26 to 30 August. Nikini Full Moon Poya Day fell on Thursday 27 August, and LankaNewz reported on 28 August that the network had taken Rs. 124.57 million from 325,316 vehicles on 26 and 27 August alone. On that reading the three days from 28 to 30 August delivered about Rs. 230 million, or roughly Rs. 77 million a day — a heavier daily rate than the Poya days themselves, and the sign of a weekend of return journeys rather than a single-day outbound rush.
The week outpaces the year’s previous benchmark. The four-day Sinhala and Tamil New Year peak from 10 to 13 April brought in Rs. 196 million from about 520,000 vehicles, an average of about Rs. 49 million and 130,000 vehicles a day. The past week averaged about Rs. 58 million and roughly 156,600 vehicles a day over seven days, and considerably more than that across the holiday itself.
Both figures were reported as “over” the stated amounts, so the derived daily rates are approximate. Neither outlet gave a breakdown by expressway for the week, a comparison with the same week a year earlier, or an explanation of what made the period a record — whether traffic volume, the toll structure or the length of the break.
