The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, the Hon. Member raised this BOQ-related question months ago; I studied it. You could not attend that day, so we could not answer then. I have since discussed with Minister Nalinda Jayatissa and my Secretary, Prof. Kapila Perera. I believe you and the Minister have done a field visit; he told me you discussed it on-site in the rubber estate.

¶ 02 As this is our first expressway, many deviations from initial feasibility and best practice have occurred — you know the single rest area on the entire Southern Expressway was leased for 99 years at Rs. 10,000 to the Rajapaksas, while declared rest areas weren’t developed, and billions were wasted. Regarding the location you mentioned, the Minister showed me the original ideal crossing; the current plan is elsewhere. This is a large expenditure; therefore, it is not in our current plans. However, if the Industry Ministry, you, and Minister Nalinda jointly propose and resolve the related litigation and funding through the BOI and line Ministries, we can consider it.