Strategic perspectives of integrating land use and transport development in Sri Lanka: a review

Abstract

This article reviews the developments in the transport sector policy in Sri Lanka from the time of getting independence from Britain, highlighting the merits, gaps, prospects and opportunities noticeable in the present-day context. While the transport policy formulation happened in a compartmentalized manner focusing on sub-sectors of road, rail, water, and air, it did not seem to have an overall strategic perspective, especially to integrate the planning of human settlements and the sustainable use of limited land area and other resources of the island. Despite the availability of all-encompassing statutes and well-established institutions, large-scale projects in the road sector, the overall development has been ad-hoc and mostly demand-driven rather than as an integrated demand-managed approach. Such disintegration and dissociation with parallel spatial plans such as the Mahaweli Development Project, Greater Colombo Economic Development Commission projects, etc., has hindered both the development of the transport sector and the overall physical development of human settlements from contributing to rapid growth and sustainable socio-economic development of Sri Lanka. The article suggests a few opportunities and prospects currently available to formulate a cohesive and integrated transportation policy that would enable a strategic contribution to overall national development. The paper discusses the Colombo-Trincomalee Development Corridor, the spatial structure proposed in the National Physical Plan 2050, and the Asian Highway Network proposed by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).