The Sri Lankan government has decided to reconstruct highway network in the country with the financial assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Daily News reported on Saturday.

With an estimated cost of 208 million US dollars, the project, which aims at rehabilitating a number of grade A and B roads in western, central and eastern provinces, will receive the assistance from the ADB, Highways Ministry Secretary S. Amarasekere was quoted as saying.

"The ADB will provide 150 million dollars of the estimated cost of the project including the expenses regarding land acquisition. This is the first time that a donor has agreed to provide funds for land acquisition," he said.

Among the highways to be reconstructed under the project are the Puttalam-Anuradhapura, Udakanda-Mahiyanganaya, Nuwara Eliya- Badulla and the Hatton-Nuwara Eliya highways.

The Sri Lankan government and the ADB finalized negotiations on the implementation of the project on Wednesday, Amarasekere said.

"We are hopeful that the reconstruction could be commenced early next year," he added.

Source: Xinhua