Reality of financing toll highways in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Highway infrastructure and good road network play important roles in the economic development of a country and their condition affects the economic returns of a nation. Traffic congestion is a critical problem due to poor road network in most countries today and improving the road network properly is essential. Most developing countries like Sri Lanka face difficulties to improve the road infrastructure because of unstable economic conditions and lack of investment funds. As a result, few Class A highways are available in the road network of Sri Lanka and no expressways have been completed so far. The concept of toll highway was initiated during last decade and it was perceived to be a better solution for solving funding problems for expressway constructions in developing countries. It allows private entities to participate, as there are several strategies for financing infrastructure projects on this basis. However, the nation's first toll highway, the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway (CKE) is held up at the construction stage and it lends to the argument that the toll highway concept is not viable for Sri Lanka.