Sri Lanka will award an 819 million rupee contract — excluding VAT — to Senarath Engineering (Pvt) Ltd for the rehabilitation of the 5.56km Malabe-Kaduwela Road (B 263), Cabinet Spokesman and Mass Media Minister Vijitha Herath confirmed on Tuesday.
Eight bids were received for the project, Herath told reporters, with Cabinet approving Senarath Engineering’s proposal. The B 263 connects the IT-hub corridor of Malabe — home to the SLIIT campus and a growing cluster of software firms — with the Kaduwela town and the Outer Circular Highway interchange, and carries heavy commuter and freight traffic.
The procurement decision is the latest in a series of suburban Western Province road awards under the government’s road-rehabilitation programme, which has emphasised local-funding execution while external financing remains constrained. Other recent suburban corridor projects have been pursued under a similar local-budget approach pending external loan reactivation.
Senarath Engineering, an established mid-tier civil works contractor, has previously delivered municipal and provincial road projects. The Rs.819 million figure is the bid value before the 18% value-added tax that applies to construction works.
The road runs through a high-density mixed-use stretch of the Colombo commuter belt and has been a long-standing source of complaints from motorists over potholes, surface deterioration and drainage. Government engineers are expected to mobilise on site after Cabinet’s procurement clearance is gazetted and the formal contract is signed.
The decision came alongside several other Cabinet-cleared procurement and policy measures announced at Herath’s regular post-Cabinet briefing on Tuesday.
