He was speaking at a media briefing in Colombo yesterday (27) where it was announced that IRCON will be completing 07 years of operations in Sri Lanka in March 2016.

IRCON has upgraded the Coastal Railway devastated by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami as well as the restoration of Rail lines in the Northern Province, establishing rail connectivity to Colombo after a gap of 30 years. This has been a boon for the people of the North while uplifting the overall economic development of Sri Lanka.

Thereafter, the then President of Sri Lanka visited India in 2010 and through a joint Declaration, the Indian Govt. announced that they would extend line of credit of USD 800 million for the restoration of the railway lines and the installation of the signal system in the Northern Province. The Line of credit is a very soft loan with interest of LIBOR plus 0.5%. There is a 20 year repayment period with a 5 year moratorium.

As part of the Northern Railway projects, the company has also handed over six new locomotives to Sri Lanka Railways.

07 years of operations
"We started projects in March 2009... So now its going to be 07 years... But we have a defect liability period which is ending in June 2016 and a further warranty period of two years," he added.

On asked whether IRCON will be engaged in future projects, Gupta said, "We will be only too happy to have more projects,” said Gupta. “I am a railway man. I will always suggest to any government to go for rail transportation which is cheaper and more efficient and comfortable than road travel."

2 companies blacklisted

IRCON International came under heavy criticism after railway unions and individuals claimed that it inflated cost of Sri Lanka railway projects.

However, Gupta stated that it is not appropriate to compare the cost and quality of one project to another as the project details are different from each other.

The claim that the state-owned Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) could have done the same jobs at lower cost is unproven, as SLR is yet to do a single similar comprehensive job anywhere in the island, Gupta said.

“The SLR had undertaken to upgrade the Colombo-Kalutara stretch, but they have not done that yet. If they are competent why can’t they do that?” he asked.

Speaking on the quality of goods from suppliers, Gupta said that two suppliers have been blacklisted and IRCON had borne the additional cost.

USD 1.5 billion
He also said that Sri Lanka will need investments of about 1.5 billion US dollars to upgrade the rest of its railway network to modern standards. “Rail transportation is a capital intensive business – you need a lot of money,” he said.

Maintenance worries
However, IRCON voiced worries on the lack of maintenance with regard to the railways.