Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa with the participation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday declared open the new state-of-the-art cable- stayed Kelani Bridge named “Golden Gate Kalyani” across the Kelani River at Peliyagoda. Golden Gate Kalyani, the first bridge built in Sri Lanka on high technology cables as a solution to the traffic congestion entering the Colombo city, connects Colombo-Katunayake Expressway and the city of Colombo. Following the opening of the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway, the linking of the Colombo Capital City with the Katunayake International Airport has resulted in a large increase in the number of vehicles entering the city of Colombo. Due to the inadequacy of the existing Kelani Bridge’s capacity for such a large number of vehicles, the preliminary plans for the new Kelani Bridge project were drawn up and signed in 2014 under the leadership of the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Ministry of Highways and the Road Development Authority have commenced the project in 2017 to construct the new six-lane bridge adjacent to the old Kelani Bridge. The project was funded by the financial assistance of Japanese Yen 35,020 million from Japan International Corporation Agency.

The new Kelani Bridge begins from the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway centering on the Peliyagoda Bridge Junction and ends at the Orugodawatta Junction and the Port Access Junction. The Bridge will have interchanges at Orugodawatta, Ingurukade and Kelanitissa junctions.