The first phase of a Chinese government emergency assistance project to rebuild bridges damaged in recent disasters was formally launched on Sunday at Yakkala.
The opening was held near the seventh bridge at Yakkala and was led by Minister Bimal Rathnayake, Hiru News reported.
The Chinese government has provided full funding of Rs 3,933 million to reconstruct 14 damaged bridges under the scheme — an average of roughly Rs 280 million per structure.
Run as a joint project
The programme is being implemented jointly by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transport, Highways and Urban Development, and the Road Development Authority.
Bridges are among the costliest pieces of infrastructure to lose in a flood or landslide, because a single failed span can sever a district’s road access entirely while the detour routes absorb traffic they were never built for. Sri Lanka has had repeated bridge and culvert damage through successive monsoon seasons.
The reconstruction begins as the country works through another spell of severe weather, with flooding reported across several districts in recent days and standing water still receding in parts of the island.
Neither the full list of the 14 bridges nor the completion timeline for the first phase was given in the report.
