Train services between Peradeniya and Colombo, suspended since Cyclone Ditwah tore up the upcountry line, will resume in October, Deputy Minister of Transport and Highways Dr Prasanna Gunasena said.
Reconstruction of the worst-damaged stretch — the Rambukkana to Kadugannawa section — is due to be finished by September 15, Hiru News reported.
Thilina Swarnamal, site engineer for the contractor carrying out the work, said the Rambukkana–Kadugannawa project is in its final stages and all construction will be complete by that date. Work at most locations on the section is finished, with two remaining sites progressing quickly.
The Black Bridge setback
Work on the Peradeniya Black Bridge — known locally as the Yaka Palama — hit a setback when rising water in the Mahaweli River submerged machinery at the site.
Gunasena said construction on the bridge is being expedited to restore Kandy–Colombo services as quickly as possible. Hiru did not say how long the flooding delayed the work or whether the machinery was damaged.
A firmer date than before
Ninety-seven locations along the upcountry line suffered severe landslide damage in the cyclone, which struck in November 2025.
Today’s timeline is materially more specific than the last public one. In April, Gunasena said trains to Kandy were expected by the end of 2026, with 92 of the 97 sites repaired to a level supporting operations and five requiring specialised technical support. A separate April account put the Peradeniya bridge at four to five months out and full Badulla-line restoration at mid-2027.
Note that October restores services only as far as Peradeniya. Reaching Kandy still depends on the Black Bridge, and Gunasena did not give a date for it — so the flagship Udarata Menike, curtailed at Rambukkana since the cyclone, is not covered by today’s announcement.
The line has been out for more than nine months. Passengers have relied on special Colombo–Kandy bus services introduced to bridge the gap.
Not reported
Hiru did not say which services will run from October, at what frequency, or whether the line will open at normal speed or under restrictions. It did not give a date for the Black Bridge, say when Kandy or Badulla services resume, name the contractor, or give a cost. The report does not reconcile the 97 severely damaged locations cited here against the 223 damaged sites on the main upcountry line reported in April, which appear to be a wider count rather than a contradiction — no outlet has set the two figures side by side.
Ada Derana and the Daily Mirror had not carried the announcement at the time of writing.
Update — NewsFirst narrows the date and the damage
September 6, later. NewsFirst has carried the announcement, attributing it to the Ministry of Transport rather than to the Deputy Minister, and putting the restart in the first week of next month — tighter than Hiru’s “October,” NewsFirst reported. Restoration work on the line as far as Peradeniya has reached its final stage.
Its account fills in most of what Hiru left out, and it corrects one framing above. The 97 damaged locations are described by NewsFirst as lying between Maradana and Kandy, not on the wider upcountry line, and the Railway Department says 92 of the 97 had been fully restored by last month — the same 92-of-97 split reported back in April, which suggests the remaining five have been the constraint all along rather than a fresh count.
NewsFirst also identifies the worst damage more precisely than Hiru did. The Ihala Kotte to Kadugannawa section was among the most severely affected, and the heaviest damage was near Balana Railway Station, where five locations were destroyed by landslides and earth slips.
On the state of the network today, NewsFirst confirms upcountry services still run only as far as Rambukkana, that Nanu Oya–Badulla services resumed on 20 June, and that Rambukkana–Nanu Oya has not resumed. That leaves the Rambukkana–Nanu Oya stretch as the outstanding gap even after October’s restart.
One naming discrepancy: NewsFirst calls the damaged structure between Peradeniya and Kandy the Kalu Bridge, where Hiru referred to the Peradeniya Black Bridge (Yaka Palama). These appear to be the same crossing under different names — kalu meaning black in Sinhala — rather than two separate structures. Both outlets say work on it is still under way, and neither gives a completion date.
Not reported
Neither outlet says which services will run from October, at what frequency, or whether the line will open at normal speed or under restrictions. Neither gives a date for the Peradeniya bridge, says when Kandy or Badulla services resume, names the contractor, or gives a cost. Neither reports what the five outstanding locations require, or why they have remained incomplete since April.
