The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, we recognize difficulties. The Kerawalapitiya system was set up before integrating the Outer Circular. Now, under normal conditions it should be about 6 minutes, and 9 minutes at peak—people shouldn’t have to queue for tickets. We studied and removed that requirement. The current traffic at Peliyagoda and Katunayake isn’t directly due to Kerawalapitiya changes. Initial teething issues occurred as people adapted. We cannot widen expressways to match vehicle growth (from 3 million in 2011 to 4.6 million now). The real solution is increasing ETC lanes. We are upgrading equipment long overdue due to legacy tender constraints; otherwise, altering contracts incurs heavy costs. Last week we obtained the required displays; we are installing them and adding ETC counters. We will require public transport vehicles during peak to use ETC cards—after we fix displays, machines, and cameras. Meanwhile, we aim to keep two counters operating to help those unfamiliar. Please also try to arrive on time for Parliament.