Chief Government Whip and Highways Minister Johnston Fernando says come hell or high-water the government will not stop its development drive but move forward delivering people what it had promised them.

Speaking at the launch of the first phase of the Ruwanpura Expressway on Friday, the Minister said: “We are now passing a very decisive moment because of the pandemic and all have to take utmost care in the circumstances. Opposition leader and his men seem to think that corona is only here in this country. This is a global pandemic. Our government successfully faced its first and second waves and we are confident that we will face the third wave too in an exemplary manner. We have our trust in the President, Prime minister, health authorities and security forces. We have the support of the people and we are sure to win this challenge as well.

“Ours is an opposition that demands to lock down the country and then to re-open it. We as a government have decided to move forward and not to suspend any development project despite the threats from the pandemic. We cannot lag behind because of the pandemic. Even without a pandemic the yahapalana government could not develop this country. They turned this land of opportunity into a wasteland within couple of years under their government. Their nagging was that there was no funds to develop the country. They said that they had to go begging for funds from other countries. We changed that scenario and now the country is again on the fast track to development. We have made the country’s economy stable. We have faced challenges one by one and achieved success. We have re-established national security. At the time they took over the government, our country was second only to China in the growth rate. They destroyed that economy by robbing the Central Bank. They siphoned off money from development projects. After we came to power we changed that culture and now we are again on the path of development.

“We have faced much worse challenges than what we face today. We won the war under the leadership of Mahinda Rajapaksa while the Opposition and its allies kept shouting that we would never win it. The leaders of the Yahapalana government lied to the entire nation. They misled not only the people but the Mahanayakes of the Three Chapters. They have no solid work to show as achievements except lies and allegations.

“The Ruwanpura Expressway will be completed in 30 months. Around 90 percent of work of Kurunegala Expressway is completed. It should have been declared open for the public use six months back but the work is delayed by the sabotage of a private construction company belonging to a Minister of the yahapalana government. That is their concern for this country. They place their political agenda over the development of the country. They try to derail our work but we are confident we can defeat those conspiracies because we have won over bigger challenges.”

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa declared open the construction work of the Rs. 54.7 billion first phase of the Ruwanpura Expressway virtually from Temple Trees, in line with strict COVID-19 guidelines,

The Ruwanpura Expressway from Kahatuduwa to Pelmadulla via Ratnapura (73.9 km) has been divided into three sections for implementation purposes. The Section 1 is from Kahatuduwa to Ingiriya (26.3 km), Section 2 from Ingiriya to Ratnapura (26.2 km), and Section 3 from Ratnapura to Pelmadulla (21.4 km).