The Colombo-Kandy main road has been closed at Ganethenna, in the Kadugannawa area, after an earth and rock slide brought rocks and soil down onto the carriageway on Tuesday evening.

A motorcycle parked near the road was damaged by the falling material, the Daily Mirror reported at 7.21 p.m. Light rain was being reported in the area at the time, and motorists were advised to avoid the stretch until further notice.

No injuries have been reported.

How long the road is shut

The Daily Mirror filing said only that the closure ran “until further notice.” Subsequent reporting carried by several outlets — including Ada Derana, whose pages this desk could not retrieve directly — puts the closure at until 6.00 a.m. on Wednesday 11 November, citing the risk of further rockfalls and earth slips in continuing wet weather. That timing is recorded here as reported elsewhere rather than confirmed from a source this desk was able to fetch.

Why this stretch

Kadugannawa sits on the climb from the lowlands to Kandy, where the A1 is cut into steep rock faces — terrain that produces rockfalls during sustained rain. The pass is the principal road link between Colombo and the Central Province, so a closure there has no short detour: traffic must divert via longer routes through Gampola or Kurunegala.

The slide comes during a wet spell that has already produced warnings across the island. The Department of Meteorology warned on Monday of rainfall above 100mm in several provinces, and a low-pressure area in the Bay of Bengal is being tracked for possible development around 13 November. The National Building Research Organisation has issued landslide warnings repeatedly over the past fortnight.

Kadugannawa itself was the subject of a Rs. 101 million landslide-mitigation allocation reported by this desk in September, which identified the area as high-risk.

A note on two similar reports

Searches for this event also return a Hiru News item headlined “Kadugannawa rockslide death toll rises to six” and a Daily Mirror item headlined “Rockfall closes Colombo–Kandy road, trapping several in Ganethenna.” Neither relates to Tuesday’s slide. Both carry article IDs far below the current same-day range, placing them with earlier incidents at the same location. Tuesday’s filing reports property damage only, and no casualties.

Not reported

The filing does not say how much material came down, whether the Road Development Authority or NBRO has assessed the slope, when clearance work will begin, or whether any diversion has been formally designated. It does not state whether the slope above the road is being monitored for further movement, or whether nearby houses have been evacuated.

Update, 11 November: the road has reopened, with traffic restricted

The A1 at Kadugannawa is open again. The section of the Kandy–Colombo main road that had been closed because of the rockfall risk has been reopened to vehicular traffic, Hiru News reported at 6.36 a.m. on Wednesday.

Traffic on the stretch is restricted, according to the Kandy District Secretary — the first named authority to appear in the coverage of this closure.

That also settles the timing question flagged above. The 6.00 a.m. Wednesday reopening reported elsewhere but not directly verifiable when this article was written has now happened, within roughly half an hour of the stated time.

Two of the questions in “Not reported” remain open. The filing does not say what form the restriction takes — single-lane working, a weight or height limit, or a ban on heavy vehicles — how long it will last, or whether the Road Development Authority or the NBRO has assessed the slope. Nothing states whether material has been cleared or whether the face above the road is being monitored for further movement.

The weather that caused the slide has not relented: the Department of Meteorology again forecast rainfall above 100mm for five provinces on Wednesday, and a separate landslide broke a road in two at Gampola the same morning.

Sources

Update, 11 November: a second newsroom confirms the reopening and answers what the restriction is

A Daily Mirror filing on Wednesday morning corroborates the reopening and supplies the detail the earlier Hiru account left open — including what form the traffic restriction takes, and who decided it.

The road reopened to traffic from 6.00 a.m. on Wednesday, police said, the Daily Mirror reported at 10.24 a.m. Colombo time.

What was closed, and where. The filing is more specific about the affected stretch than any earlier account: the road was shut overnight near Dawson Tower in the Kadugannawa Police Division and at Ganethenna Junction in the Mawanella Police Division, after falling rocks, earth slips and the threat of landslides brought on by heavy rainfall. That places the closure across two police divisions rather than one, and names Dawson Tower as a second affected point alongside Ganethenna.

The restriction, explained. Kandy District Secretary Indika Udawatta said the decision was to keep one lane of the Kadugannawa–Ganethenna section open to traffic, taken after on-site inspections to assess the risk. That answers the question flagged above about whether the restriction was single-lane working, a weight or height limit, or a ban on heavy vehicles: it is single-lane working.

And it may not hold overnight. Udawatta said the road would be closed again during the night if heavy rainfall continues, on safety grounds. Motorists have been advised to use alternative routes where possible and to drive with caution on the affected stretch.

Still open

The filing does not say how long the single-lane arrangement will remain, whether the Road Development Authority or the NBRO has formally assessed the slope, or whether the fallen material has been cleared. It does not say what the on-site inspection found, or who carried it out. The rain that caused the slide has not eased: the Department of Meteorology again forecast falls above 100mm for five provinces on Wednesday, and six spill gates are now open at the Victoria reservoir upstream of the same district.