An agreement to provide a credit line of USD 318 million for the development of the railway sector was signed between the Ministry of Finance of Sri Lanka and the EXIM Bank of India.
The Loan Agreement was signed by Dr. R H S. Samaratunga, Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Mass Media and David Rasquinha, Managing Director of the Export- Import (EXIM) Bank of India at the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media in the presence of Nihal Somaweera, Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, Arindam Bagchi, Deputy High Commissioner of India, Priyantha Rathnayake, Director General, Department of External Resources.
The Sri Lanka Railways under the supervision of Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation will implement the projects.
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his first visit to Sri Lanka in March 2015 declared a fresh Line of Credit (LOC) of USD 318 million for the development of railway sector in Sri Lanka. Government of India has already provided four Lines of Credit for the development of the railway sector in Sri Lanka through its EXIM bank amounting to approximately USD 966 million. These credit facilities have been utilized to improve the Southern and Northern railway lines and for the procurement of rolling stocks for the Sri Lanka Railways.