- Transit-oriented development in planned modernization and electrification of suburban rail.
Sri Lanka’s railway and urban
development authorities are to work together to include property development,
known as transit-oriented development, in a planned modernisation and
electrification of suburban rail.
Palitha Samarasinghe, director of the Railway
Electrification and Modernization Project, said the railway department was in
talks with the Urban Development Authority on transit-oriented development or
TOD, integrating rail and commercial development schemes. “We are having talks
with the UDA on transit-oriented rail operations,” he told a forum.
“We asked them to consider
railway development when planning urban development.” He was responding to a
question whether the modernisation, involving station upgrades, includes
property development with private sector participation, during the 15th John
Diandas Memorial Lecture held by the Chartered Institute of Logistics &
Transport Sri Lanka.
“We will consider whatever urban
development that can be included,” Samarasinghe said. Transit-oriented
development exploits the connectivity between the rail system and the city
provided by stations and enables rail operators to earn alternative revenue and
generate increased ridership. The higher revenues, in turn, enable the
provision of better services to the public as, in places like Hong Kong whose
Mass Transit Railway Corporation earns one-third of its revenue from non-fare
sources like profit from retail and property management.
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