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Southern Expressway's Medamulana Exit: Not in original blueprint

29 Feb 2020

  • Construction completed in three days
  • Connects to expressway at ‘risky bend’
  • No environmental impact assessment
By Maheesha Mudugamuwa The hurriedly constructed exit to Weeraketiya on the Southern Expressway’s Matara-Hambantota stretch was not in the original plan or blueprint of the expressway, The Sunday Morning learnt. The town of Medamulana in Weeraketiya is where both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ancestral home is situated, and therefore, the deviation from the original plan and the hurried construction has raised several questions. The final stage of the Matara-Hambantota stretch, officially named Extension of the Southern Expressway (ESEP), was opened to the public on 23 February (Sunday) under the patronage of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. This stage extended the expressway from Palatuwa to Barawakumbuka and now the Southern Expressway links the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport and Hambantota Harbour to the country’s commercial capital, Colombo. As learnt by The Sunday Morning, the exit point at Bedigama, Weeraketiya had been constructed only three days prior to the opening last Sunday. Once fully completed, the new exit was expected to increase the estimated cost of the project by nearly Rs. 200 million. Furthermore, the construction of the new exit is said to be connected to a risky bend on the road while the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the road is yet to be obtained from the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) by the Road Development Authority (RDA), The Sunday Morning learnt. According to sources, the new exit had been constructed in Bedigama, Weeraketiya giving access to Tangalle and Weeraketiya. As per the original plan, the Kasagala intersection was the only intersection after Beliatta and there was no exit in between. According to the RDA, the construction of a 96 km four-lane expressway was split into four sections, namely Matara-Beliatta (30 km), Beliatta-Wetiya (26 km), Wetiya-Andarawewa (15 km) and Mattala-Hambantota via Andarawewa (25 km). The expressway section from Matara to Beliatta is under the Extension of the Southern Expressway Section 1. The length of the extension commissioned recently from Palatuwa to Barawakumbuka of the Southern Expressway is 58 km and it cost Rs. 169 billion. The distance from Palatuwa to Hambantota is 96 km. The sections from Matara to Beliatta, Beliatta to Barawakumbuka, Barawakumbuka to Andarawewa, and Andarawewa to Mattala were completed in four stages at a cost of Rs. 225 billion. The 222 km Southern Expressway is the longest expressway in the country. With the opening of its new extension, motorists will be able to travel to Kataragama from Colombo within three-and-a-half hours. The existing Matara-Godagama interchange will no longer be used and the new Palatuwa interchange will replace it. After Godagama, there are interchanges at Aparekka, Beliatta, Kasagala, Angunakolapelessa, Barawakumbuka, and Sooriyawewa. Following the opening, the stretch from Matara to Hambantota was mired in controversy as it had received a facelift by the new Government with the inclusion of a new exit giving access to the Weeraketiya-Tangalle road which leads to Medamulana. “What if we all decided to get exits/entrances from expressways to areas where our relatives live,” questioned former Highways Minister Kabir Hashim who confirmed to The Sunday Morning that the new exit was not in the original extension plan. This exit was never in the plan and it had suddenly come out a few days before the opening, he said, pointing out that all the hard work of the engineers had now been changed by the new officials with the addition of a new exit. According to Hashim, the exit had not followed the proper road rules as it was connected to a bend on the road. “Usually, byroads are not connected to curves on expressways as it could be risky for the traffic, but this exit was connected to a risky bend on the road,” he stressed. In addition, the former Minister highlighted that the RDA had not received the clearance from the CEA to construct the road. “There was no EIA done for the new exit,” he said, adding that the new construction would also increase the initially estimated cost of the project. “All this is public money,” he stressed. The Sunday Morning then contacted the former RDA Chairman Nihal Sooriyarachchi who also denied that the new exit was in the initial plan. “It was not in the initial plan and what was in the plan had been built early,” he added. However, the incumbent RDA Chairman Ranjith Premasiri stressed that the exit was in the initial feasibility study but had not been built by the previous management for reasons unknown to him. He told The Sunday Morning that the new exit was a partial exit similar to the Kotalawala exit before Kaduwela. “The new exit costs only about Rs. 20 million. It is a simple interchange connected to Tangalle-Weeraketiya which is a main road and that won’t affect anybody,” he stressed. A similar interchange had been identified on the Matara-Hakmana road and the RDA had already completed the design but couldn’t begin construction as there was a protest by the villagers. “The villagers had been shifted to the new place which the RDA identified as an interchange and they opposed it as they would again have to shift if such an interchange is built,” he stressed. According to the RDA Chairman, the main objective of an expressway is to attract traffic as much as possible and therefore, the more exits and entrances, the more the traffic uses the expressway. Even though the construction was complete, if necessary in the future, more exits could be added, Premasiri noted. As explained by the RDA Chairman, the new exit was the smallest interchange in the entire expressway system in the country. Meanwhile, when The Sunday Morning contacted the CEA, a high-ranking official who wished to remain anonymous said the application was received last week. “If the construction was done inside the already approved area there was no need for a new EIA. However, the CEA had not visited the place and therefore it had no idea whether it was inside the approved area or not,” the CEA official said.

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