The Hon. Upul Kithsiri
Hon. Upul Kithsiri sought clarification on the safety of the Udawalawa bund, noting that it was built in 1968, is now heavily used by tourist and local traffic, and could endanger wider areas if compromised. While accepting the Deputy Minister’s response and the existence of an alternative route, he urged that the lower alternative road be rehabilitated urgently rather than awaiting further reports, so it can be used if the bund road is closed in an emergency.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I am satisfied with the Deputy Minister’s response but seek clarity. The bund was built in 1968. During the LTTE conflict, traffic over it was severely restricted. We know there is an alternative. Udawalawa sustains a vast area up to Hambantota. If compromised, many regions could be endangered. The area is now heavily used for tourism. Earlier, very few vehicles used the bund; now many do, creating risk. Therefore, while people will use the alternative if improved, please do not wait for reports. Your answer already notes that in an emergency the main road over the bund would be closed. Can you quickly rehabilitate the alternative road below the bund so tourists and locals can use it? Please act urgently.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Wednesday, 7 January 2026 ·No. 23112 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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/lk/speeches/23385
Cite as: The Hon. Upul Kithsiri. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 7 January 2026. No. 23112. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/23385