Transfer of expressways from RDA to Sahasya to take six months: Min Sec

It will take the Highways Ministry at least six months to devise a strategy under which Sri Lanka’s expressways can be transferred from the Road Development Authority (RDA) to the State-owned company named Sahasya Investments Ltd (SIL), although Cabinet approved the relevant management agreement to take effect on April 1 this year.

SIL still has just two employees – one from the Ministry and from the RDA – and will only now start informing donor agencies who financed the expressways and obtaining their approval.

Cabinet has sanctioned the expressway network, lands, loans (local) and staff to be separated from the RDA and assigned to SIL “in order to be able to manage them in a more commercial manner”. The “formalised management agreement” was to be effective from April 1, and relevant assets will be transferred within six months after legal and financial feasibility studies carried out by the RDA and SIL.

“What we are trying to do in the next six months is to understand whether to transfer the assets and whether the current laws and regulations will allow us to do those transfers,” Highways Minister Secretary Ranjith Rubasinghe told the Sunday Times, amidst claims by RDA sources that the process was being rushed through.

In the immediate term, it was being explored whether SIL – which is fully owned by the Treasury – can manage the expressways while the RDA continues to own the assets. However, none of the details (such as whether SIL will pay the RDA for expressway maintenance) have been hammered out.

“We haven’t done anything yet,” Mr Rubasinghe said. “We only just got Cabinet approval and even though it says from April 1, we are in transition mode. Donor consent has to be obtained. And we want to first see if we can make management more efficient by doing better toll collection and better maintenance scheduling, through advertising, and so on.”

It was earlier stated that the Treasury will take over expressway debt. But even this will only be decided after the assets are transferred, he continued, indicating that there was no strategic plan at the ready. At present, the roads are under the RDA’s Expressway Operation and Management Unit.

Meanwhile, the RDA recently advertised the procurement of a “multi-lane free-flow electronic toll collection (MLFF-ETC) system on a build, own and operate basis. The selected bidder is expected to complete installing the system for the Port Access Elevated Highway and then extend it to other expressways.

Cabinet has sanctioned the expressway network, lands, loans (local) and staff to be separated from the RDA and assigned to SIL