103 unusable railway carriages imported!
The Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) has expressed strong displeasure regarding the alleged waste of money caused by the importation of 103 unusable railway carriages from India.
The COPA charged that out of the 160 railway carriages imported from India, 103 have so far not been used.
In an inquiry made by the committee in this regard, the head of the railway department has said that the railway carriages used in Sri Lanka have the vacuum break system.
But they pointed out that these new train carriages have the Air Brake system.
When asked who gave the approval for the importation of these carriages and added that the officials who took these decisions should be held responsible.There was also a long discussion about the delayed importation of railway carriages which were planned to be imported to Sri Lanka under the Indian loan subsidy in 2017.
This information was revealed when the Committee on Public Accounts met recently (05) under the chairmanship of Professor Tissa Witharana to examine the current and future plans under the Ministry of Transport and Highways to provide efficient transport services to the general public.