ECONOMYNEXT – Worsening traffic jams in Sri Lanka could reduce the attractiveness of living in its cities, potentially affecting foreign investments and apartment sales, a transport expert has warned.
“If we want to fill all the apartments we’ve built in Colombo, it has to be liveable city,” said Amal Kumarage, senior professor in the Department of Transport & Logistics at the University of Moratuwa.
The Liveability index of a city includes factors like traffic congestion, walkability, bikeability, clean air and public spaces.
“We will not be able to progress economically unless we remove this burden which is retarding the liveability of our cities,” Kumarage said.
“People, including investors, will choose the cities they want to live in.”
Traffic jams have got so bad that not only Colombo but provincial cities were becoming unattractive and rural communities becoming more and more isolated, Kumarage told a transport and logistics forum.
The impact of worsening traffic to society was many-fold with the country and city becomes less competitive and land values increasing.
Congestion today was at an all time high, along with road accidents and land acquisition problems for road projects, Kumarage told the Research for Transport & Logistics Industry or R4TLI forum held by the Sri Lanka Society for Transport and Logistics (SLSTL).
(COLOMBO, July 16, 2018)