Sri Lanka inaugurates luxury train with help from India, connects Jaffna to Colombo

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India and Sri Lanka crossed another significant landmark in bilateral ties as the island country launched a luxury train service with the help of a Line of Credit offered by India. The luxury train service connects the country's Tamil-dominated Jaffna district to the capital city, Colombo.

The intercity rail service with all facilities was launched on Sunday, where India provided AC Diesel Multiple Units (AC DMUs) under the loan facility. The luxury train will travel from Colombo's Mount Lavinia suburb to Jaffna's Kankesanthurai port suburb in the north, covering a distance of approximately 386 km.

“Powering the railway infrastructure forward!! The train service launched today to the Northern Province highlights 2 key pillars of India's development partnership with Sri Lanka - infrastructure development and country-wide focus,” Indian High Commission said on Twitter. Sri Lanka's Minister of Transport Pavithra Wanniarachchi, who undertook the inaugural ride, was welcomed by India's Deputy High Commissioner Vinod K Jacob at the Colombo Fort Station during the inaugural ceremony.

“Hon'ble Minister @pavithrawannia1 inaugurated the AC Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) supplied by @RITESLimited under an Indian credit line & launched the train service from Mt.Lavinia to KKS. She undertook the inaugural ride & was welcomed at the #Colombo #Fort Station by Deputy High Commissioner,” the Indian High Commission said in a tweet.

“This train service will facilitate people-to-people exchange and will lay emphasis on mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries,” Jacob said. The train service will criss-cross the island nation, connecting Colombo with Kankesanthurai on the northern tip of the Jaffna Peninsula, which has a Tamil-majority population.

Wanniarachchi thanked the Indian government for its continued support to Sri Lanka in tackling the ongoing pandemic. “The supply of air-conditioned diesel multiple units is just one of the many railway projects being undertaken by India in Sri Lanka,” read an official statement. The statement further read, “There are also other ongoing projects, which include the supply of passenger coaches under an Indian Line of Credit.”

“India's total development portfolio in Sri Lanka is over USD 3.5 billion, of which around USD 570 million are purely grant projects,” the Indian High Commission said in a statement. “Modernisation of railways and creation of new railway infrastructure has been important sectors of focus under the Indian Government's development portfolio in Sri Lanka, in line with the priority of the government and people of Sri Lanka,” the statement added.

With inputs from PTI