The Southern Expressway (; ) is
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, ...
's first
expressway. The highway links the Sri Lankan capital
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 ...
with
Galle
Galle (, ; , ) (formerly ) is a major city on the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka, south of Colombo. Galle is the provincial capital and largest city of Southern Province, Sri Lanka and is the capital of Galle District.
Galle was known as ''Gi ...
,
Matara and
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 ...
, major cities in the south of the island.
The Southern Expressway Project (SEP) was introduced by the Road Development Authority and the Ministry of Highways as far back as late 1980s. The
University of Moratuwa
The University of Moratuwa (also referred as Moratuwa University) ( ''Moraṭuwa Wiśwawidyālaya'', ) is a public university in Sri Lanka. It is located on the bank of the Bolgoda Lake in Katubedda, Moratuwa, a suburb of Sri Lanka's capital C ...
undertook an Environment Impact Assessment study in 1996, which was submitted to the government in early 1997.
Construction of the highway began in 2003 and completion up to Galle was achieved by November 2011. March 2014 saw the section from Galle to Matara being declared open to the public. The construction of the expressway was partly funded by the
Japan Bank for International Cooperation
The , JBIC, is a Japanese public financial institution and export credit agency that was created on October 1, 1999, through the merger of the Japan Export-Import Bank (JEXIM) and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF).
JBIC became the ...
, who were responsible for the section between Kurundugahahetekma and Kokmaduwa, and the
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world.
The bank was establishe ...
, responsible for the section between Kurundugahahetekma and Pinnaduwa. The expressway reduces the time taken to travel from Colombo to Galle () to one hour from three hours, and Colombo to Matara () to one and a half hours from four hours taken by the regular
A2 highway.
The extension of the expressway to
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 ...
was inaugurated on 4 July 2015. The extension will be four lanes (with allowance of further two lanes in future), the cost of US$180M being funded by the
Exim Bank of China
Exim is a mail transfer agent (MTA) used on Unix-like operating systems. Exim is a free software distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, and it aims to be a general and flexible mailer with extensive facilities for checkin ...
.
On 10 August 2015, a
Highway Traffic Management system was inaugurated and currently covers the length of the expressway, including the
Outer-Circular Expressway.
On 23 February 2020, The final stage of the expressway which links to
Hambanthota was opened to the public.
Intersections
Earnings and traffic volumes
Toll structure
Toll collection is currently done manually in cash by toll collectors. An
electronic toll collection
Electronic toll collection (ETC) is a wireless system to automatically collect the usage fee or Road pricing, toll charged to vehicles using toll roads, HOV lanes, toll bridges, and toll tunnels. It is a faster alternative which is replacing Tol ...
system has been proposed.
See also
*
*
References
External links
Expressway Operation Maintenance And Management DivisionRoad Development Authority
{{Authority control
Highways in Sri Lanka