Construction of the 19-kilometre Rambukkana–Galagedara section of the Central Expressway will begin by the end of this month, the Ministry of Transport and Highways announced on Thursday.
The Ministry said the preceding Pothuhera–Rambukkana section has now reached its final construction stage and is on track to be opened to the public by March 2027. With the Rambukkana–Galagedara section breaking ground in May, the Colombo–Kandy spine of the Central Expressway will move into a continuous build phase along its central corridor.
Work on the Kadawatha–Mirigama section — the southern leg connecting the Outer Circular Highway to the Pothuhera junction — is now around 50 per cent complete, the Ministry said.
Beyond Galagedara, planners are also preparing to upgrade the Galagedara–Katugastota road into a four-lane carriageway “as soon as possible”, the Ministry added, signalling a phased extension of high-capacity road infrastructure into Kandy.
The Central Expressway has been one of Sri Lanka’s largest live infrastructure projects for nearly a decade, with successive governments pushing different sections forward at varying pace. The current rollout sequence — Kadawatha–Mirigama, Pothuhera–Rambukkana, Rambukkana–Galagedara — would, once complete, bring expressway-grade connectivity to the upcountry railway hub at Rambukkana and to the western approach of Kandy.
The Ministry did not disclose a contractor or financing structure for the Rambukkana–Galagedara section in Thursday’s statement.
Separately, the Southern Expressway has single-lane restrictions between Gelanigama and Dodangoda for resurfacing works. An automated expressway toll system is also slated for deployment by year-end.
