South end: Godagama A24 Constructed 27 November 2011 | Length 133 km | |
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Existed: 27 November 2011 (2011-11-27) – present History: Kottawa-Galle section Opened on 27 November 2011
Galle-Matara section Opened on 15 March 2014 North end: Kottawa A4 - Start of E02 Colombo Outer Circular Expressway Towns Panadura, Kalutara, Matugama, Bentota, Elpitiya, Ambalangoda, Galle, Matara | ||
The Southern Expressway, also known as the Southern Lanka Distributor (Sinhala: දක්ෂිණ ලංකා අධිවේගි මාර්ගය Daksina Lanka Adhivegi Margaya), Tamil: தென்னிலங்கை அதிவேக நெடுஞ்சாலை) is Sri Lanka's first E Class highway. The 126 km (78 mi) long highway links the Sri Lankan capital Colombo with Galle and Matara, major cities in the south of the island.
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Map of Southern Expy, Sri Lanka
The Southern Expressway Project- SEP- was introduced by the Road Development Authority and the Ministry of Highways as far back as late 1980s. the University of Moratuwa undertook the Environment Impact Assessment — EIA study in 1996 and the report was submitted in early 1997 and in 2002 began under the "regaining Sri Lanka" programme
Construction of the highway began in 2006 and completion up to Galle was done in November 2011. Later in March 2014, the section from Galle to Matara was declared open for the public. The construction of the expressway was partly funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, who were responsible for the 65 km (40 mi) section between Kurundugahahetekma and Kokmaduwa and the Asian Development Bank for the 161 km (100 mi) section between Kurundugahahetekma and Pinnaduwa. The expressway currently reduces the time taken to travel from Colombo to Galle (116 km (72 mi)) to one hour from three hours and Colombo to Matara (29.3 km (18.2 mi)) to one and half hours from four hours taken by the regular A2 highway.
The extension of the expressway to Hambantota was inaugurated on 4 July 2015. The extension will be four lanes (with allowance of further two lanes in future), the cost of US $180M is being funded by the Exim Bank of China.
On 10 August 2015, a Highway Traffic Management system was inaugurated and currently covers the length of the expressway, including the Outer-Circular Expressway.
Toll structure
As of now the tolling process is done completely manually (i.e. with cash only). Yet an ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) System is proposed and in implementation process.