News
Highways Minister wants those who dig up roads to meet cost of repairs
Highways Minister Johnston Fernando yesterday said that he would introduce new laws to compel the Water Board, Ceylon Electricity Board and private telecom companies to bear the cost of repairing the roads that were damaged by them.
Addressing a meeting at the Ministry in Battaramulla, the minister said that he had received a large number of complaints from the general public that the CEB, the Water Board and telecom companies damaged roads for their service needs and not even the newly carpeted roads had been spared. “They dig up the roads to lay underground cables, water lines and power supply lines. Thereafter, they patch up the roads and leave. After a rain or two those places become puddles and the roads become impassable and causing great inconvenience to the people. The funds spent by the ministry to renovate roads go down the drain as a result. This practice has to be stopped. We intend to bring new laws to make those companies to pay for the cost of repairs, which should be carried out under the inspection of the Road Development Authority officials.”
The Minister instructed Director Maintenance and Management Mangala Marasinghe to prepare a set of guidelines to be given to the private companies which intended to cut and dig roads for their service needs.
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the proposal presented by the Minister of Transport, Highways, and Urban Development to award the contract for printing and supplying vehicle number plates for the Department of Motor Traffic for a period of five (5) years to M/s South Asian Technologies based on the recommendations of the High-Level Standing Procurement Committee and the Procurement Appeal Board.
The National Lotteries board has been established subject to the Finance Act No. 11 of 1963. Having identified the requirement of amending that act which was imposed around 62 years to cater the current requirements of the lottery market, the Cabinet of Mnisters at their meeting held on 14.02.2017 granted approval to draft a new bill for the purpose.
Accordingly, the National Lotteries Board has recognized further amendments to be performed to the fundamental draft bill prepared by the Legal Draftsmen.
Therefore, the Cabinet of Ministers granted approval for the
resolution furnished by the President in his office as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to direct the Legal Draftsmen to finalize the formulation of the draft bill for the National Lotteries Board as soon as possible including the proposed new amendments as well.
The Werahara office of the Department of Motor Traffic performs issuance of temporary driving licenses in this country based on the driving licenses issued overseas, and measures have been initiated to render the service from a service window of the Department of Motor Traffic established at the Bandaranayake International Airport from 03.08.2025.
The fees charged for issuing temporary driving licenses have been published in Motor Vehicles (Driving License Levy) Regulations No. 3 of 2022 prepared under the provisions of the Motor Traffic (Authority 203) Act.
But, as the fee of Rupees 2,000/- charged for the service is not sufficient, the requirement of amending the regulations has been recognized.
The regulations for introducing the revised fees have been published in the government extraordinary gazette
notification No. 2463/04 dated 17.11.2025. Therefore, the Cabinet of Ministers granted approval to the resolution furnished by the Minister of Transport, Highways and Urban Development to
submit the regulations to the Parliament for its concurrence.
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M/s South Asian Technologies awarded contract to supply vehicle number plates
A new act for National Lotteries Board to be introduced
Motor Vehicles (Driving License Levy) Regulations No. 3 of 2022 to be amended
Mrs. P. K. L. S. Panduwawala appointed to the post of Surveyor General
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