Sri Lanka gives UK firm £ 35 million steel bridge deal

Lanka Business Online
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

The United Kingdom's Cleveland Bridge UK Ltd has won a contract to build 210 permanent steel bridges in Si Lanka in a project partly funded with a loan of 35 million sterling pounds (6.2 billion rupees).

A government statement said the Cabinet of ministers approved a proposal made by the minister of economic development Basil Rajapaksa for the project to improve access to villages.

The government accepted a proposal by Cleveland Bridge UK Ltd to build steel bridges of 06 - 30 metre lengths around the island, it said.

The total cost of the project, to be completed in the next three years, is 15,860 million rupees with the balance cost of 9,647.50 million rupees to be funded by the Sri Lankan government,

It said 9,400 kilometres of rural access roads had been modernised under a government programme to improve the rural economy by connecting villages with better roads.

"But due to the absence of bridges over perennial water bodies these developments have met with some hurdles," it said.

© Lanka Business Online