The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has not yet granted final approval for the proposed Light Rail Transit (LRT) project in Colombo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vijitha Herath stated.
Speaking at the weekly Cabinet press briefing today (17), the Foreign Minister said JICA has informed the government that any future decision will be taken only after the successful implementation and evaluation of other projects currently underway.
He noted that construction of multimodal transport hubs is presently in progress and that, while discussions on implementing the LRT project have taken place, final approval from JICA has not yet been received.
Elaborating further, Minister Vijitha Herath stated:
“JICA has informed us that its next decision will depend on the progress of these ongoing projects. When we met JICA officials in Japan, we presented all the proposals; however, they maintained that, as an initial step, we should proceed with the current projects, after which a decision will be made based on their progress.”
