Sri Lanka’s expressways generated more than Rs. 124 million over two days as holiday travel surged, the Ministry of Transport and Highways said.
A total of 325,316 vehicles used the network during the period. The Southern Expressway carried the heaviest traffic and brought in approximately Rs. 76.7 million, followed by the Colombo–Katunayake Expressway at around Rs. 34.8 million and the Central Expressway at approximately Rs. 12.9 million.
The two days are 26 and 27 August, and the exact total was Rs. 124,574,925, the Daily Mirror reported in a separate account that breaks the same total down by day and by expressway code.
Fewer vehicles, more money
The second day was the busier one financially and the quieter one on the road. On 26 August, 163,763 vehicles produced Rs. 60.41 million. On 27 August — Poya day itself — 2,210 fewer vehicles produced Rs. 64.16 million, a rise of Rs. 3.75 million on 1.3% less traffic. Average revenue per vehicle went from about Rs. 369 to about Rs. 397.
The corridor figures explain the divergence. Traffic on the E01 and E02 sections rose 5% to 102,027 vehicles and their take rose 15.5% to Rs. 41.14 million, while the E04 count rose 18.6% to 24,522 vehicles. Both moved against the E03, where traffic fell 23.8% to 35,004 vehicles and revenue fell 15.4% to Rs. 15.99 million. Short airport-corridor trips gave way to longer runs south and into the hills — the pattern of a domestic holiday rather than an outbound travel day.
The ministry attributed the increase to the long weekend holiday. Nikini Full Moon Poya Day fell on Thursday, 27 August, a public holiday landing at the end of the working week and opening an extended break. The Kandy Esala Perahera also concluded this week with its traditional water-cutting ceremony, drawing large crowds to the hill capital along a corridor served by the Central Expressway.
The two-day haul is heavy by recent standards. Over the four-day Avurudu peak from 10 to 13 April, the expressway network took Rs. 196 million from about 520,000 vehicles — an average of roughly Rs. 49 million and 130,000 vehicles a day. The past two days averaged about Rs. 62 million and 162,600 vehicles a day, a materially higher daily rate than the New Year rush.
The Outer Circular question, resolved
The two accounts reconcile exactly, and in doing so settle a gap in the ministry’s own presentation. Summed across both days, the Daily Mirror’s E01 and E02 line comes to Rs. 76.75 million, its E03 line to Rs. 34.89 million and its E04 line to Rs. 12.93 million — matching, to the rounding, the three roads NewsFirst named.
The Outer Circular Highway was therefore not excluded from the total, as the three-road breakdown alone suggested. It was reported jointly with the Southern Expressway, the two being physically continuous. The Rs. 76.7 million attributed to the Southern Expressway is the combined figure for both.
That also means the comparison with April is like-for-like rather than conservative: both sets of figures cover the full network.
Neither account named the total for the same two days a year earlier, so the year-on-year direction is not established.
