Sri Lanka has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Russia to secure technical expertise and investment cooperation for modernising the country’s railway service, Ada Derana reported on Wednesday.
The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the 17th International Economic Forum held in Kazan, Russia, between the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Transport and Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Transport, Highways and Urban Development. The stated objective is to enhance technical cooperation and investment support for the development of the country’s railway transport sector.
Sri Lanka was represented at the forum by Leader of the House and Transport, Highways and Urban Development Minister Bimal Rathnayake. State Secretary and Russian Deputy Transport Minister Dmitry Serebryakov attended the signing ceremony for the Russian side.
The Kazan MoU is the concrete bilateral outcome that follows Rathnayake’s appearance at the 17th International Economic Forum, where his Transport Ministry had not yet disclosed specific deliverables from the trip. It is the second formal railway-sector cooperation framework Sri Lanka has signed with Russia in recent months: an April transport MoU was concluded at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum with then-Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin’s department.
Sri Lanka Railways operates one of the country’s most capital-intensive state services, with rolling-stock procurement, track upgrades and signalling modernisation high on the Ministry’s near-term agenda. The Russia track sits alongside parallel railway engagements with Indian and Chinese partners.
The Ada Derana report did not detail the financial scale or specific project lines covered by the Kazan MoU. Further detail is expected once Sri Lanka’s Transport Ministry issues a formal readout.
Source: Ada Derana.
