Though 71% of Sri Lanka’s railways system have been restored post-cyclone Ditwah, a lack of sufficient financing keeps the national transport agencies from fully implementing a climate-resilient infrastructure transportation system, Deputy Minister of Transport Prasanna Gunasena told the World Bank on Wednesday (11).
Speaking on the Resilient Corridors for Sustainable Connectivity panel organised by the World Bank Group, Gunasena said: “So up to now, we have 71% operable railway lines after two months. Two months back, 78% were inoperable. Now it’s 71% operable, but there are so many things to be done in the road network as well. So again, we need to have a specialised consultancy to establish the resilient corridors to withstand this type of disaster.”
Elaborating further he said: “It’s a timed procedure. Finance is another problem. We are a third world country, a small island. We mainly depend on foreign income, mainly on the four pillars of tourism. It got affected due to this disaster. Normally we have a peak from 15 November onwards. So that peak was lost, but we recorded the highest number of tourists in the year 2025, even with that disaster.”
Gunasena revealed that Sri Lanka is planning to set this sustainable venture into motion in the coming years, however, without revealing any specific timeframes. “We are planning to have it more in the coming years. Currency is a problem. So, we need investment. Like Africa, this is a small island. We need investment. It’s a beautiful island. With this investment and with the cooperation of all these stakeholders, we believe that we can cope up with these disasters.”
As of present, Sri Lankan officials are yet to confirm a date for an international donor conference, which had been signalled to take place early this year, last December. The intention of the conference, as expressed by Deputy Finance Minister Anil Jayantha Fernando was to raise funds to help Sri Lanka “rebuild” itself after the catastrophic damage borne by infrastructure, after cyclone Ditwah.
According to the United Nation’s office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Global Rapid Post-Disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE) report, the estimated direct physical damage Sri Lanka had borne due to Cyclone Ditwah is worth $ 4.1 billion, equivalent to approximately 4% of Sri Lanka’s 2024 gross domestic product (GDP).
Sri Lanka allocated Rs. 500 billion out of its own spending space into reconstruction and recovery efforts in December 2025, exceeding its primary expenditure balance limit of 13% of GDP.
Sri Lanka’s National Climate Finance Strategy (2025-2030), which is slated to be reviewed in 2027, is meant to mobilise around $ 10 billion for projects in renewable energy, agriculture, and resilient infrastructure.
The framework outlines 12 financial instruments, notably including debt-for-environment swaps and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).
Speaking at the panel Gunasena added that at present, Sri Lanka’s transport agencies operate within silos, often without much coordination. “To have resilient corridors for sustainable connectivity, we need to have an integrated plan instead of a fragmented planning from the relevant authorities. Likewise, the Road Development Authority, the Transport Commission, Sri Lanka Transport Board and everyone need to get together to have an integrated plan.”
According to Gunasena, the integrated, resilient transport infrastructure plan is to have four pillars; climate resilience, economic and redundancy resilience, digital operational resilience, and social inclusion resilience.
“To have a resilient corridor, I believe there should be four pillars. First is climate disaster resilience. Each road network should withstand this type of disaster. The second is economic and redundancy resilience. The third one is digital operational resilience.” For example, he said, on weekends and just before public holidays, Sri Lanka’s public transport sees peak demand.
“So we can’t cope up with the normal bus fleet that we have. Once we digitise that, we can get an idea about what type of demand there is and we can place extra buses for that particular route. The last one is social inclusion resilience. With those four pillars, we believe that we can have sustainable, resilient corridors.”