The Kelani Valley railway line in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, covering the breadth of Colombo District. The line is owned, maintained, and operated by

Sri Lanka Railways The Sri Lanka Railway Department (more commonly known as Sri Lanka Railways (SLR)) (Sinhala language, Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා දුම්රිය සේවය ''Śrī Laṃkā Dumriya Sēvaya''; Sri Lankan Tamil dialects, Tamil: ...

Route definition and overview

The Kelani Valley line runs southeast from Colombo Maradana Station, through much of the city of Colombo. It runs through major business centres, like Nugegoda and Maharagama, before turning eastwards. It crosses the Southern Expressway near Homagama and continues east towards Avissawella, the current terminus of the line. The line serves an increasingly urbanising community. Major railway stations on the line are Colombo Fort, Maradana,

Narahenpita Narahenpita is a municipal ward of Colombo. Located at the South-Eastern corner and served by the Kelani Valley Railway Line The Kelani Valley railway line in Sri Lanka, covering the breadth of Colombo District. The line is owned, maintained, ...

Nugegoda Nugegoda () is a large, densely populated suburb of Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is located just south of Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte and north-east of Dehiwela Mt. Lavinia. It has a population of over 250,000 people. Education Schools in the region ...

, Maharagama,

Pannipitiya Pannampitiya (, ) is a suburb of Colombo District. It is an area in Colombo District, Sri Lanka and is located about from the commercial capital. Pannipitiya is subdivided into a number of smaller areas. Areas in Pannipitiya *Pannipitiya Junct ...

Kottawa Kottawa (, ) is one of the main suburbs in Colombo, Sri Lanka and is administered by the Maharagama Urban Council. It is located from the centre of Colombo. It is a Road junction, five-way junction and lies as the epicenter for Maharagama road, H ...

Homagama Homagama is a town in the Colombo District, Sri Lanka, about south-east of Colombo. The Homagama Pradeshiya Sabha consists of the Homagama divisional secretariat and 10 GN division of Padukka DS division. The total Land area is about is of ...

, Meegoda,

Padukka Padukka (, ) is a town in the district of Colombo in the Western Province of Sri Lanka. It has a population of roughly 8,000. Elevation 44feet. Padukka, which is part of the Avissawella electoral district, electorate is situated 33 kilometers ea ...

, Waga, Kosgama, and

Avissawella Avissawella (, ) is a township in Sri Lanka, governed by an Urban Council, situated on the A4 route from Colombo to Ratnapura, Colombo District, Western Province, Sri Lanka, approximately 40 km air distance and 48.1 km road distance fr ...

History

Narrow-gauge era

The Kelani Valley line was originally built from

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

to Yatiyanthota via

during 1900–1902. It was branched off at Avissawella and extended up to Opanayaka via

Ratnapura Ratnapura (, ; , ) ("City of Gems" in Sinhala and Tamil) is a major city in Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of Sabaragamuwa Province, as well as the Ratnapura District, and is a traditional centre for the Sri Lankan gem trade. It is loca ...

(completed in 1912). Originally built as a

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curv ...

line to serve the

rubber plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tobacco ...

s in the area, the railway line between Avissawella and Yatiyanthota was removed in 1942, the line from

to Opanayaka abandoned in 1973. The services were restarted up to Avissawella in 1978.

Gauge conversion

In 1992, a project was started to convert the line to . The project was finally completed up to Avissawella () in 1996. The tracks beyond were completely dismantled leaving only ruined stations, bridges, and bunds.

Infrastructure

The Kelani Valley line is entirely single track, at . As train frequency increases, it is becoming increasingly challenging to operate trains running both direction on the single-line track. Currently the line serves an increasingly urbanizing population leading up to Avissawella. The Kelani Valley line is not electrified. All services run on diesel power. Current operating speeds are limited due to the sharp curves on the line.

Locomotives and rolling stock

During the narrow-gauge era, the line had its own fleet of narrow-gauge locomotives and rolling stock. The steam locomotives of Class K and Sentinel railcars class V1 and V2 were also used. Currently, the line is operated with broad-gauged S8 diesel multiple units.

Planned extension to Hambantota

Sri Lanka Railways is planning to restore the Kelani Valley Line up to Opanayake through Kuruvita,

and Kahawatta and to augment the line with a broad gauge via Embilipitiya and Suriyawewa to the port of

Hambantota Hambantota (, ) is the main city in Hambantota District, Southern Province, Sri Lanka, Southern Province, Sri Lanka. This area was hit hard by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and underwent a number of maj ...

by 2030.

Operation

has a monopoly on the operation of Kelani Valley line. As of January 2016, there were 20 trains operating on the line daily, mainly catering to rush hour commuters traveling to and from Colombo. In addition to this, Sri Lanka Railways introduced a rail bus service to cater commuters traveling between Kosgama and Maharagama during daytime.

References

Kelani Valley railway line in Google Earth

Kelani Valley railway line in Google Maps

{{Rail transport in Sri Lanka Railway lines opened in 1912 Railway lines closed in 1973 Railway lines opened in 1978 5 ft 6 in gauge railways in Sri Lanka Railway lines in Sri Lanka Transport in Western Province, Sri Lanka 2 ft 6 in gauge railways in Sri Lanka 1912 establishments in Ceylon