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Treasury helps RDA settle Rs. 59 bn outstanding to contractors

01 Jul 2022

  • Payments to be made in instalments
  BY Dinitha Rathnayake   A total of Rs. 59 billion in outstanding payments owed by the Road Development Authority (RDA) to contractors engaged in road maintenance work is to be settled with funds provided by the Treasury. Speaking to The Morning, RDA Director General L.V.S. Weerakoon said that the Treasury is releasing funds to pay the outstanding amounts in instalments and that he was signing the cheques for said purpose. The payments had been accumulating over the past six months, and the continued delay in paying the contractors had been hindering road maintenance work on thousands of kilometres of roads throughout the country. Continued delays in paying contractors would also make it difficult for the Government to attract contractors to work on projects in the future, as they would be unsure as to when their payments would be made. Therefore, the RDA formulated a Cabinet paper requesting the Treasury to release funds to at least pay the outstanding amounts in instalments. Meanwhile, the construction of highways is on hold due to the current fuel shortage and the non-availability of explosives, according to Weerakoon, who added that the fuel crisis must end and fuel has to be received in order to resume such construction. Meanwhile, Weerakoon said that there is a decrease in the use of highways due to the current crisis.


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