The government is considering whether to permit motorcycles with engine capacities above 1,000cc for special purposes including sport, Deputy Minister of Transport Prasanna Gunasena told Parliament on Wednesday.
A committee has been appointed to examine the question, and a final decision will be taken on its recommendations, the Deputy Minister said, the Daily Mirror reported. The report is by Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera.
The question that prompted it
Gunasena was replying to Samagi Jana Balawegaya MP Suranga Rathnayaka, who asked whether the Ministry of Transport was considering removing the existing legal restrictions on motorcycles exceeding 1,000cc.
Rathnayaka also asked whether such machines could be permitted under strict regulation — particularly for use on designated racing tracks or other suitable locations — rather than on public roads generally.
Referring to several high-powered motorcycles currently held in police custody, the MP further asked whether arrangements could be made to release them.
The Deputy Minister’s answer to all three points was the same: the government will decide after the committee reports.
What this would change
Sri Lanka restricts the registration and use of motorcycles above the 1,000cc threshold, and machines brought in outside those rules have in past cases been seized. The exchange indicates the restriction is under review rather than being lifted, and the Deputy Minister committed to no timetable.
The framing in the question — sport and closed circuits rather than open-road use — suggests any relaxation under consideration is narrow. Nothing in the filing indicates a general liberalisation of high-capacity motorcycle imports.
Not reported
The filing does not say when the committee was appointed, who sits on it, what terms of reference it has been given, or when it is expected to report. It does not state the precise current legal restriction or the statute it sits under, how many motorcycles are in police custody, or on what basis they were seized. No position was given on whether released machines would be road-legal. No other verified newsroom had carried the exchange at the time of writing.
