10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. (Dr.) Prasanna Gunasena - Acting Minister of Transport, Highways and Urban Development

Jathika Jana balawegaya· Mahanuwara· 23 October 2025 ·Oral question: Oral Question: Train Services to North and East (Q.3/2025)

Infrastructure
AI summary generated by gpt-5.5

The Acting Minister of Transport, Highways and Urban Development stated that the Government does not currently plan to import sleeping coaches because they carry fewer passengers, around 12 per coach, compared with about 48 in air-conditioned premium seated coaches. He said the ministry has deployed and will continue deploying air-conditioned first-class coaches with adjustable seats as the preferred option.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, sleeping coaches carry fewer passengers—about 12 per coach—whereas air-conditioned premium seated coaches carry about 48 passengers with better comfort. Therefore, at present we do not intend to import sleeping coaches. We have deployed, and will continue to deploy, air-conditioned, adjustable-seat first-class coaches.

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Thursday, 23 October 2025 ·No. 22641 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
Page · column
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Permalink
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Cite as: The Hon. (Dr.) Prasanna Gunasena - Acting Minister of Transport, Highways and Urban Development. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 23 October 2025. No. 22641. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/7870