In 2014, the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his capacity as the Minister of Highways had initiated the New Kelani Bridge project and signed for the plans and the approval, Minister of Highways Johnston Fernando said, following the centre-closure of the new Kelani Bridge, which is an engineering design known as extradosed type, which uses stay cables to connect two main pylons with the bridge deck and to share weight of the loads from the bridge deck.

In his recent address to the nation, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa mentioned that we would complete this project soon, said Minister Fernando, adding that the former Highways Minister of the Yahapalana government had claimed that it was a project that had been commenced by the previous administration. “The truth is that the highest number of mega development projects in this country commenced under the visionary leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He deserves the credit for that. Others cannot take the credit because people know the truth. I still can remember how President Rajapaksa started the Outer Circle Highway Project. Later, the ministers of the yahapalana government tried to get credit for that and were planning to open a section of it but a woman opened it.

“We are going to complete the work of this new Kelani Bridge within three months and hope that it could be commissioned in the first week of September. At a time when the entire world is battling the COVID-19 pandemic, engineers of Japan and this country with other officials rendered a yeoman service to make this project a success. They took an enormous risk by doing so. This grateful nation will never forget their dedication and in the years to come people will talk of their dedication.

“We would not suspend any development project because of difficulties or the pandemic. One of the biggest mistakes committed by the yahapalana government was trying to take credit for development projects initiated by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. They suspended some projects citing various reasons because they had no capacity nor caliber to carry on such mega development projects that had been envisioned for the use of the people for the next century. The first such project that they had stopped was the Port City Development project. This project too had been delayed citing various reasons. Otherwise this would have been completed by this time and people would have been using this bridge.

“Some Opposition members blame us, claiming that we could work only with China. We work not only with China but also with Japan and the UK. We are working with many nations other than China and this bridge came into being with the assistance of Japanese engineering technology as an example for that. Various countries have come forward to assist our development process and invest here. Those who criticize us have only a single objective of sabotaging our work. People would not fall for their trap.

“We are a government that will not hesitate to act for the sake of the development of this country. We are not afraid of critics.  We are not afraid of Opposition tactics. None with an iota of intelligence would participate in protests or lead their people to protests at a time like this knowing it’s dangerous to expose them to the pandemic. Unfortunately, we have Opposition politicians who do so. Those who predicted that at least one or two thousand people will die here of COVID-19 finally got infected. We call on them not to put the lives of people in harm’s way to achieve their political objectives. You will never be able to escape from the curse of the people by using them as a cat’s paw to cover up their political bankruptcy.

Saturday’s event – the centre-closure of the extra dozed bridge marks the conclusion of the concrete casting of the new bridge.

With the opening of the new Kelani Bridge, the Colombo-Katunayake expressway would connect the capital to the country’s main international airport with a six-lane road and further link the elevated highway to Aturugiriya and the port-elevated highway to the Port City. The new bridge is 380 meters long and has been constructed in two phases – the first phase covering the steel construction of the bridge has cost Rs 31,539 million while cost of the second phase of casting concrete deck of the bridge is Rs 9,896 million. 

Among those present were Rural Roads and Other Infrastructure State Minister Nimal Lanza, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Sri Lanka, Yamada Tetsuya, Secretary to the Ministry of Highways RWR Pemasiri, Secretary to the Ministry of Rural Roads and Other Infrastructure Prof Ranjtih Dissanayake, Chairman of RDA, Chaminda Athuluwage, Working Director Chaminda Basnayake, Director General of RDA Sardha Weerakoon, Project Director Darshika Jayasekera and other officials.