Some allege that the incumbent government does not construct any roads or highways. However, since the good governance government cannot construct road like the former government, certain systematic methods are being planned in the construction and development of roads to eliminate fraud and corruption, said the Highways and Investment Promotion Minister.

Highways and Investment Promotion Minister Kabeer Hashim alleged in Colombo that road construction had been undertaken during the previous regime without any transparency or disregarding any tender procedures and in some instances when the cost of construction of a kilometre of road had been some Rs. 75 million, huge amounts like Rs. 200 million per kilometre had been spent.

“We are proceeding systematically. We are preparing better plans and going ahead. But some criticize that we are not working,” the Minister said.

He said that it had been revealed that some road contracts had been offered at much higher rates like around 55 per cent more than the actual and the Ministry was auditing these accounts.

There are several officials in his Ministry who had been involved in these corruptions and that he has to continue to work with them, the minister lamented.

The incumbent government’s keen attention has been drawn towards certain road development projects undertaken during the former regime through local loans and one such instance is where the loan obtained from the National Savings Bank alone had been Rs. 28 billion and that this amount had in fact not been released for road construction, said Minister Kabeer Hashim.

The road network in Sri Lanka witnessed a huge transformation during the tenure of the former government with the construction of the Katunayake Expressway, the Southern Expressway, the outer circular road while most roads were carpeted of concreted.

Roads and highways could be considered an essential component in a country’s economic development and economic development could be accelerated through road development.