Sri Lanka’s draft national transport policy was severely criticized recently at a forum organized by the Pathfinder Foundation.

In a sharp critique of the draft policy, Head of LirnAsia, Rohan Samarajeewa, highlighted that the draft policy dealt mainly with the state run railways which operates at a huge loss, is hugely overstaffed and inefficient and makes no mention of how the service could be reformed and made financially viable.

Even though the railway is given the highest priority, it only carries five per cent of passengers and incurs losses.

The policy has hardly anything of importance on two wheelers and three wheelers which forms 70 per cent of the total number of vehicles. The draft policy does not provide adequate space for private sector participation even though there has been a lot of private sector investment in transport, Samarajiva added.

Transportation is about movement of people and goods not vehicles, said Professor Saman Bandara of the University of Moratuwa. " We have too many transport ministries and agencies which do not co-ordinate effectively resulting in a poor transport system .