The Draft National Transport Policy does not pay much attention to developing domestic freight transportation services nor does it outline plans for the post-war regions of the North and East, several experts said at a seminar organised by the Pathfinder Foundation last Thursday.

Prof. Saman Bandara, an academic in logistics, pointed out that the draft did not pay much attention to domestic freight transportation in Sri Lanka.

He highlighted several challenges to formulating a national level policy and said the draft was not too clear about tangible results that are hoped the policy would help to achieve.

Meanwhile, former General Manager of Sri Lanka Railways, Dr. L. Gunaruwan said Sri Lanka’s loss making railways system has huge potential to become a money spinner but under its present condition is not in a position to attract freight.

"Railway services need to be efficient and reliable if freight is to be attracted and not enough has been done in this regard. Also, authorities are more concerned about the transportation of people and there are not enough locomotives that can be taken away for freight because they have to be available to commute Colombo’s workforce to and from the city during peak hours," Gunaruwan said.

He also said distances were too short for railway freight transport to be as economically viable.

However, despite these drawbacks, Gunaruwan said freight transportation would make Sri Lanka Railways "highly profitable with a lot of possibilities".

Meanwhile an expert in the field of logistics and supply chain management, Col. Faiz-ur Rahman, Chairman DHL Global Forwarding Lanka Pvt. Ltd., said that poor domestic logistical services caused distortions in pricing of goods:

In Mahiyangana, a kilo of bananas cost Rs. 7 but in Colombo it is about Rs. 40 and not even the poor farmer gets the benefit of such high prices but the middleman, this means there is something very wrong, in the country’s logistical system.

Rahman said in India the prices of goods change by about 10 percent as a result of being delivered across long distances but with Sri Lanka "it is a different story all together".

Rahman also pointed out that 30 to 40 percent of fruits and vegetables produced go waste or destroyed due to poor transport facilities.

Gunaruwan said there needs to be an internal container depot and integration between Sri Lanka Ports Authority, railways and the Sri Lanka Transport Board.

Sri Lanka Railways commutes over 200,000 passengers to and from Colombo on a daily basis. Gunaruwan said it took 2 litres of diesel to transport 3,000 people over a two kilometre distance.

Dr. Rohan Samarajiva, Executive Director of LIRNEasia, said he was concerned the Draft National Transport Policy did not mention the specific needs of the people and the opportunities to develop transport and logistical services for both people and goods in post-war regions of the North and East.

He also criticised the draft for not leaving enough room for private participation, and where there is, such as in bus services, regulation was lacking.