Rajagiriya flyover to be opened today

The flyover constructed in Rajagiriya will be opened for vehicular traffic today, it is learnt.

Besides, two other flyovers put up in Ganemulla and Polgahawela will also be vested with people before the end of January.

A statement from the Highways and Higher Education Ministry said the main objective of the Road Development Authority (RDA) was to develop the road network in Sri Lanka.

The Ministry said a series of measures had to be taken to achieve this objective. Some of them included the widening and improvement of the existing roads, construction of bridges and flyovers, rehabilitation of roads affected by natural disasters and the development of rural roads.

Southern Expressway(eo 1), Colombo-katunayaka Expressway (E03) Outer Circular Highway(eo 2), Southern Expressway Extention to Hambantota , Central Expressway and Ruvanpura Expressway were identified as high mobility expressways. It is essential to construct these expressways to ease the transportation of the people specially to avoid vehicle congestions.

According to the latest statistics over one hundred thousand vehicles enter Colombo and its suburb cities namely Kollupitiya, Borella and Maradana through Rajagiriya where vehicle congestions can be seen throughout the day. .

Rajagiriya flyover was constructed at a cost of Rs 4.6 billion funded by the Spanish Government and expertise fully supervised by the Road Development Authority. The length of the flyover is 533 meters while its width is 21 .4 meters and this will be a four lane flyover.

It is expected that after the opening of the flyover, the vehicles can be driven in Ragagiriya faster without moving very slowly as present. The Rajagiriya flyover definitely will help ease traffic congestion at Sri Jayawardenapura Mawatha Borella, Battaramulla and Rajagiriya by reducing the traffic between the main flows at Rajagiriya junction.